Posted on 12/14/2006 1:37:52 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
U.S. promises to guarantee N. Korea's security if it dismantles nukes
SEOUL, Dec. 14 KYODO
The United States has told North Korea it will guarantee the country's security in writing if North Korea takes concrete steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday.
The United States made the offer when chief U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan met in Beijing late last month, Yonhap quoted diplomatic sources as saying.
In the Beijing talks, the United States reiterated it has no intention of attacking North Korea and is willing to prove that in written form, which would be signed by U.S. leaders, including President George W. Bush, the report said.
The United States also said it is willing to consider economic assistance if North Korea takes steps to scrap its nuclear arsenal, it reported.
In response, North Korea showed interest in the U.S. offer and said its leaders would think about it and would discuss the issue at the upcoming six-party talks.
''Offering a security guarantee in a written form is seen as the middle point on the road to the normalization of relations between North Korea and the United States,'' Yonhap quoted a diplomatic source as saying.
The six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program are scheduled to reopen in Beijing on Monday, for the first time since November last year.
North Korea had refused to return to the talks, which involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, saying the United States must first lift sanctions it imposed on a Macao-based bank that allegedly passed counterfeit U.S. dollars for North Korea and laundered money.
Tension mounted following North Korea's first nuclear test on Oct. 9, which prompted the U.N. Security Council to adopt a sanctions resolution. It later agreed to return to the talks.
==Kyodo
Ping!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Of course, some of this blame rests with the American people, in their voting decision last month; so few, when they pulled the lever, even considered the ramifications all the way to Pyongyang.
It is what it is.
The simpler/faster solution would be to detonate them onsite.
Sounds like the Cuba deal. Remove the nukes and we will guarantee your totalitarian system forever. We trash agreements with our friends but agreements with Satan are forever sacred.
But with the state of affairs in Iraq draining every bit of energy from the President and our international infrastructure, this is a pipe dream.
And Pyongyang's "#10 Downing Street" knows it all too well. This is why there has been a swagger in their step for the last two years, and particularly in the last four weeks.
As it stands, N. Korea is more likely to go down due to a freak accident nobody anticipated than as a result of executing planned deliberate action.
Kim Jong-il is getting cocky again while his country is so far gone to be saved. This may be a good setup for such a freak accident.
Cuba again
Maybe if those 'tough guys' like Christopher Hill, Condi Rice, and even our Commander-in-Chief were to view the conditions at Kong Jong's concentration camps, like the one where entire families are exterminated with chemical/biological agents while 'scientists' observe them behind sealed glass walls, watching parents desperately trying to breathe the remaining air in their lungs into their children before they all succumb, perhaps our 'tough guys' might not be so willing to make a deal with the devil.
On the other hand, maybe they would.
Boy Chia Pet won't be roaney
Thanks.
Bump.
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