Posted on 05/31/2005 7:20:30 AM PDT by dead
Personal criticism of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, from the highest levels in Washington may thwart hopes of Kim's isolationist regime returning to negotiations over its nuclear weapons program.
The US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, sharply attacked Mr Kim, as United Nations officials warned of a famine about to hit North Korea and the US deploys more Stealth strike aircraft to the Korean peninsula.
The combination suggests the Bush Administration, or its hawkish "neo-conservative" side, is losing patience with Chinese efforts to negotiate a solution to the nuclear issue, seeing Mr Kim's regime as vulnerable to a squeeze.
A dichotomy in US policy during George Bush's first term - between diplomacy advocates and those urging tighter sanctions on North Korea - may be ending in favour of hardliners.
Mr Cheney called Mr Kim "one of the world's more irresponsible leaders" during in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live, due to broadcast late yesterday.
He said Mr Kim ran "a police state" and one of the most heavily militarised societies in the world while most North Koreans lived "in abject poverty and stages of malnutrition".
"He doesn't take care of his people at all," Mr Cheney said. "And he obviously wants to throw his weight around and become a nuclear power."
For weeks, North Korea has said it will not rejoin talks stalled for 11 months before an apology from Washington for references by Mr Bush and the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to Mr Kim as running a "tyranny".
China - which has been trying to reconvene talks between the itself, the US, North and South Korea, Russia and Japan - has said the name-calling is unhelpful. But Mr Cheney called for Beijing to use its influence more aggressively on the North Koreans to bring them back to negotiations.
"The Chinese need to understand that it's incumbent upon them to be major players here," Mr Cheney said.
China supplies most of North Korea's oil and grain on concessional barter terms. But aside from a short "technical" interruption of oil in 2003 it has resisted calls to exercise this clout.
North Korea's declaration in February that it possessed nuclear weapons, suspicious tunnelling in a remote part of the country and a move to reprocess spent nuclear fuel have raised fears it might conduct a nuclear test - or is resorting to nuclear blackmail to win concessions before rejoining the talks.
Last week the US sent 15 F-117A Stealth aircraft to bases in South Korea to maintain a "credible deterrent posture and presence in the region".
Cheney needs to be more diplomatic when dealing with Kim Il Puggsley.
I like it when Cheney talks tough. He should be a role model for the stoneless members of the GOP.
"You're bweaking my bawls, Cheney. You're bweaking my bawls."
Obligatory graphic
He's the perfect fit to talk tough. He has no horses in any future races.
Cheney just told the truth on meet the press
Well, why would Cheney call Kim Jong Il one of the world's most irresponsible leaders? Maybe because he is?
Oh for God's sake, now we have to be nice to this guy? Let's all take up lying in order to get little Kimmie to give up his nukes. What a waste of time. He already broke his last agreement with us. The only thing that would break this impasse is Kim's sudden conversion to sanity, which isn't going to happen.
God forbid we offend the little psycho tryant gulag running maniac with nuclear ambitions to extort the world.
Lord knows Clintons approach of kissing his butt worked.
Let China try to feed the starving North Korenas if they are so impressed with Kim's leadership, use of resources and commitment to humanity. Maybe after putting money down the NK rat hole for a few decades, they would hum a different tune about their money being wasted as well.
Nothing happens in NK without the approval of the Red Chinese.
now that's funny!
Time for a chorus of "I'm So Ronery".
LOL! (Sidebar here: "Hey, TLR did you see this pic?")
I'm still trying to figure out what 'name-calling' occurred to get China upset.
All I saw in the article where declarations of fact, not opinion.
Of course, in the mental world that the left lives in, this is calling people "names."
Well spoken about the "mental world that the left lives in". I've never understood their logic and can't bear the thought of reading Ann Coulter's book to get it. I prefer to ignore them.
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