Posted on 11/29/2006 11:14:18 PM PST by MadIvan
HOW do you get the attention of North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong Il? Stop him getting hold of iPods, plasma televisions and Harley Davidson motorbikes, it would appear.
The United States government's first effort to use trade sanctions to aggravate a foreign leader personally is targeting items believed to be favoured by Mr Kim or to have been given by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyal families who run the Communist government.
Mr Kim, who engineered a secret nuclear weapons programme, has other ways of obtaining the high-end consumer electronics and other items he wants. But the list of proposed sanctions, released by the White House yesterday, aims to make his luxury life harder: no more Cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Segway scooters or personal watercraft, such as jet skis.
The ban would also extend to sports equipment and musical instruments. The 5ft 3in Mr Kim is an enthusiastic basketball fan - the then US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, gave him a ball signed by Michael Jordan during a diplomatic trip in 2000 - while his former secretary, widely believed to be his new wife, studied piano.
Experts said the sanctions effort, being co-ordinated under the United Nations, would be the first to curtail a specific category of goods not associated with military stockpiling or weapons designs - and the first so tailored to annoy a foreign leader.
"It's a new concept; it's kind of creative," said William Reinsch, a former commerce department official who oversaw trade restrictions with North Korea during Bill Clinton's presidency.
Mr Reinsch predicted governments would comply with the new sanctions, but agreed that efforts to block all underground shipments would be frustrated.
"The problem is, there has always been and will always be this group of people who work at getting these goods illegally," he said, adding that the likes of iPods or laptop computers were "untraceable and available all over the place".
US exports to North Korea are paltry, amounting to only $5.8 million (£3 million) last year; nearly all that was food.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the drinks industry's trade group, said it supports the administration's policies toward North Korea. The Washington-based Personal Watercraft Industry Association also supports the US sanctions - although it bristled at the notion that a jet ski was a luxury.
Defectors to South Korea have described Mr Kim giving expensive gifts of cars, alcohol and Japanese-made appliances to his most faithful bureaucrats.
"If you take away one of the tools of his control, perhaps you weaken the cohesion of his leadership," said Robert Einhorn, a former government official who visited North Korea with Mrs Albright and dined extravagantly there. "It can't hurt, but whether it works, we don't know."
Responding to North Korea's nuclear test on 9 October, the UN Security Council voted to ban military supplies and weapons shipments - sanctions already imposed by the US. It also banned sales of luxury goods but has left each country to define such items. Japan included beef and caviare, along with expensive cars, motorcycles and cameras. Many European nations are still working on their lists.
Much of the US information about Mr Kim's preferences comes from defectors, including Kenji Fujimoto, the Japanese chef who fled in 2001 and wrote a book about his time with the North Korean leader.
NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR 'WEAPONS OF BLACKMAIL'
NORTH Korea is building nuclear weapons for political blackmail, the head of the United States forces in South Korea has said, adding he was not overly worried about the military threat they posed.
General BB Bell said in an address to business leaders in South Korea that he did not think the government in Pyongyang would collapse soon.
"The North has built nuclear weapons as an instrument of political policy in order to blackmail nations in the area," Gen Bell said, arguing Pyongyang hoped its atomic ambitions may cause fissures in the US-South Korean military alliance.
A senior envoy of the communist state said yesterday that North Korea was now prepared to return to six-country talks on its nuclear weapons programme because it had "gained a defensive position" with a nuclear test.
Experts say it is unlikely that North Korea has the technology to miniaturise nuclear weapons to mount them on missiles and its ageing air force would have trouble penetrating US defences in order to deliver a nuclear bomb.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
We warned them that there would be serious consequences
to testing nukes. I hope the axis of evil has learned their lesson.
This is all fine and dandy,but wouldn't be smarter if we kept him from getting nuclear materials instead?
No Harleys? The horror, the horror.
Necessary silliness, I guess. But strikes me as the equivalent of sending Kim off to bed without dessert.
Yes, a big. . .'take that'. . .
. . .and where there is a will. . .and China. . .there is a 'way'. Harley's being the only ticket item, they might be challenged by to get.
With our response here; and the 'pie-in-the-face' yesterday, delivered to our President; I am fearing that 'we are falling'. . .and soon will not be able to get up.
I like the idea, but experience shows that this will only create a black market for UN officials to exploit for fraudulent profit.
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