I've already told you Hans Brix, we have not weapons of mass destruction.
Posted on 09/09/2007 5:01:24 PM PDT by Delacon
Bush Administration Announces Plan to Disable Pyongyang's Nuclear Sites by the End of 2007
International nuclear experts will begin on-site inspections of North Korean nuclear facilities next week to develop a way to disable all of Pyongyang's nuclear sites by the end of the year, the Bush administration said today.
The announcement came just as South Korean President Moo Hyun Roh and President Bush, meeting at the Asia-Pacific summit in Australia, publicly clashed over why the United States has never formally declared an end to the Korean War.
Officials said that the nuclear experts will come from three nations in the six-party talks to disarm North Korea: the United States, China and Russia.
This would mark the first time that multilateral experts would inspect the facilities. The inspections follow an agreement in June in which North Korea committed to end its nuclear weapons program in a trade for fuel and other foreign aid.
Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy handling the talks with Pyongyang, called the agreement "another significant step toward the goal of de-nuclearization" of the Korean peninsula.
The experts arrive Tuesday, but Bush administration officials said the day was not chosen for any symbolic link to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The experts leave Sept. 15.
North Korea initiated the offer, said Hill, also the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Hill is accompanying Bush at the 21-nation Asian economic summit.
Hill made the surprise announcement at the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Sydney after final consultations with all six nations.
Inspectors will arrive in Pyongyang to survey sites that North Korea has agreed to disable, beginning with the Yongbyon site, which contains a fuel fabrication facility, a 5-megawatt reactor and a reprocessing facility.
The experts will examine the sites for ways to disable them by Dec. 31, 2007. The U.S. delegation will include officials from the National Security Council and the Energy and State departments.
Hill was careful in his phrasing, using the term "experts" rather than "inspectors" to abide by North Korean objections to the stronger term.
The parties also agreed to use the term "disable" rather than "dismantle," apparently leaving open the question of just how far North Korea will be required to go in shutting down the sites and how quickly the government of Kim Jong Il would be able to restart them.
Among the options, Hill said, were drilling holes in the sides of the reactor and filling them with cement.
"Our hope is that they can agree on some disabling measures & that make it very difficult to bring a facility back online," Hill told reporters. "The idea of disabling is to make it difficult to bring things back online."
The announcement followed an awkward, but polite exchange in which Bush and South Korea's President Moo Hyun Roh seemed to clash over the timing of a U.S. declaration formally ending the Korean War.
It began as a photo opportunity, with the two presidents complimenting one another and declaring progress in the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program. Then, things heated up.
Roh agreed to carry a message in a forthcoming summit to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il urging him to comply with international agreements.
The exchange heated up as Roh asked the president to clarify his stance.
"I think I might be wrong," Roh said, through a translator. "I think I did not hear President Bush mention a declaration to end the Korean War, as of just now. Did you say so, President Bush?"
Bush replied, "I said it's up to Kim Jong Il as to whether we can sign a peace treaty to end the Korean War. We've got to get rid of his weapons & and we're making progress toward that goal. It's up to him."
Roh laughed politely and gave a broad smile before saying, "I believe that they are the same thing, Mr. President. If you could be a little clearer in your message."
Bush gave an awkward chuckle, glanced at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and, with a shake of the head, responded, "I can't make it anymore clear, Mr. President. & That will happen when Kim Jong Il verifiably gets rid of his weapons programs and his weapons."
Afterward, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe downplayed the apparent clash. "There was clearly something lost in translation during the photo op. President Bush considered it a good meeting and both the U.S. and Roh are on the same page with regards to the need for North Korea to comply with its obligations under the six-party talk agreements. Once it complies, we'll be able to move to a full peace agreement as spelled out through the six-party talks."
How many years has the north had to prepare for this?
excellent point. Saddam had less than a yr to hide his still missing WMD’s. How long has Kim Jon Ill had?
While they are over there, why not bring back the USS Pueblo. Let the NK’s show their good will towards us.
Well what is the point? Is your point that no progress in disarming NK is better than what we just got? There is a big point to be made here and that is for the first time, a president has gotten NK to agree to multinational talks and agreed to inspections and even dismantling plans. See Kimmy boy didn’t want to fall into Saddam’s trap. Saddam agreed to multi national talks. When he walked away from them, he wasn’t just walking away from the big bad ole US, he was walking away from a group. Thats why Kimmy refused to do them for the past 6 years. Another reason NK refused them was that they knew a load of back room dealing would go on that they didn’t like. Maybe China agreed to use its considerable weight if the US agreed to look the other way in Tibet maybe. Things like that. This is pretty big. Yeah NK may(probably will) pull some crap but this is way better than unilateral talks and way better than nothing.
Not bad,not bad at all.
Kind of like "On a day when Winston Churchill publicly disagreed with President Truman's choice of wardrobe, Truman accepted Japan's unconditional surrender". It's that absurd.
Google it. You’ll find articles all about the Bush exchange with the president of SK with almost no coverage of the inspections. This is what USA Today is still leading with. You have to get down to the middle of the article to find any mention of inspections.
“Bush spars with S. Korean president”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-09-07-apec-bush_N.htm?csp=34
The S Korean president is a reprehensible leftist who hopefully will lose office in the next elections. Bush should be given points if he gave this guy a swift kick in the rear.
The UN fought N Korea and N Korea remains at war with us. There would be no sensible reason for the US to declare the war over unless N Korea did the same and made major peace moves.
I still happened to be on USA Today’s website and noticed this down the list of “latest news”. “U.S. nuclear experts invited to N. Korea”. Kinda sound like they’ve been invited to a picnic.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-09-07-north-korea_N.htm?csp=34
If it is our experts that is even more significant. And from the article above, they are talking about drilling holes in the N Korean reactor and pouring cement in! If that ever happens, astounding progress.
Now that's a showing of appreciation for ya'!
And every freaking Democrat has been telling Little Bush how to fix it........
Now - on Little Bush’s watch — are we nearing the defanging of a starving North Korea?
Maybe..... Unless we put another pansy Democrat in the White House — and more of the bastards in Congress.
Well said.
Hell, I don’t value the “appreciation” of most “leaders” in that part of the world...
I simply need their respect that we can and will “hurt” them if they give us the justification.....and from time to time we need to demonstrate that response.
Love is fickle -— death is forever.
This comes from one of S. Korea’s top 3 english language sites. Notice the downplaying of the very brief exchange between Bush and the SK president. Notice how it mentions that Bush offered(an offer he made in June and was missed by the MSM) an ending to the war if “North Korea abandons its nuclear weapons program and its weapons”. But then S. Korea just wants peace. The MSM just wants Bush’s head on a platter.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/09/10/200709100022.asp
United States President George W. Bush gave a nudge at North Korea`s Kim Jong-il to wipe his hands clean of nuclear weapons last week at the APEC meeting in Sydney, Australia, stating the possibility of a formal peace agreement should the communist state achieve complete denuclearization.
This was not the first time that Bush has mentioned bringing about an official end to the Korean War. At a previous APEC summit meeting in Hanoi last November, Bush said that the United States is willing to enter into security arrangements with North Korea if that country disarms. His statement at the time raised the possibility of a peace agreement or a peace treaty to replace the current Armistice Agreement signed in 1953 between the United Nations Command and North Korea.
There appears to be strong momentum in the six-party process. Shortly after a joint press meeting of Roh and Bush, Christopher Hill, the top U.S. nuclear negotiator announced that nuclear experts from the United States, China and Russia would visit North Korea from Sept. 11 to 15 to study how that country`s nuclear facilities could be disabled. North Korea`s main nuclear reactor in Yongbyon was shut down in July.
Hill went on to describe the planned visit, which is being made at the invitation of North Korea, as “another significant step toward the denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. All signs are that both the United States and North Korea are readier than ever to work toward achieving the goals of the Feb. 13 agreement. The accord would provide North Korea with energy assistance and normalization of relations with Japan and the United States in exchange for complete denuclearization.
Roh will deliver Bush`s message of a “peace treaty for complete denuclearization” to his North Korean counterpart when he visits Pyongyang from Oct. 2 to 4 for a summit meeting. The message will need to be clear and unequivocal: A peace treaty is possible only when North Korea abandons its nuclear weapons program and its weapons. Nothing should get “lost in translation” — a phrase used to gloss over the awkward exchange between Roh and Bush as the South Korean president pressed Bush to clarify himself on the matter of declaring an end to the Korean War — Roh and Kim speak the same language.
The upcoming South-North summit should be used as an opportunity to reinforce the six-party process and reiterate to the North Korean leader that complete denuclearization is the only way for the isolated country to lift its people out of poverty.
Indeed this is as good as it gets for North Koreans. Bush is determined to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue within his term. The Bush administration has moved away from the harsh rhetoric of “Axis of Evil” and is talking with the North Koreans. Now, the possibility of a peace treaty is within Kim`s grasp. However, to get that prize, North Korea must completely denuclearize.
It would be foolhardy for North Korea to miss this golden opportunity to sign a peace treaty that could eventually lead to normalization of relations with the United States, ending decades of isolation. Kim knows what he needs to do. When Roh visits him next month, Kim should send a clear message that he will proceed, as pledged, to achieve complete denuclearization.
I've already told you Hans Brix, we have not weapons of mass destruction.
Yep agree........
This article has been written for 30 plus years over and over......same old song and dance with new names, bribes paid and dates.
Lack of information, and ignorance, are the building blocks for wider naivete.
How many times do we have to be fooled.
True regime change was the ONLY credible fashion to correct this situation. It is becoming more and more of a distant, pipe dream, as State Department appeasement takes complete control. You couldn't MAKE this stuff up.
That is not the impression widely here in East Asia.
The impression is that Bush and his team got rolled, and was considerably distracted over the last five years with other matters, subsequently the DPRK was able to stall things out during the very ill-advised Six Party Talks charade, in classic DPRK fashion, and to move forward with their nuke and intermediate/long range warhead program, then use the plutonium production and extraction as a bargaining chip (which they did not have to such extent eight years ago), to finally sue for peace and get their fuel, rice, electricity from the West. Bush is leaving office in 15 months, Kim Jong il's regime will still be in place. You tell me who "won"?
The result was a total capitulation of the "correct" initial Bush approach embodied in his "Axis of Evil" speech, which decayed and eroded over time. Sorry, but this is the reality.
Things were clearly done on North Korea under this Administration that NONE of us would have sanctioned were it to occur under a Clinton regime.
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