Posted on 01/13/2003 11:50:16 AM PST by VaBthang4
Richardson Urges Nonaggression Pact with N.Korea
Sun January 12, 2003 03:29 PM ET By Mark Egan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration should open talks with Pyongyang aimed at negotiating a nonaggression pact to defuse nuclear tension with the communist state, former U.N Ambassador Bill Richardson said on Sunday after three days of unofficial talks with North Korea.
No doubt also the position of the Left.
Fresh from almost nine hours of talks with North Korean officials (Talks which he and the North Korans initiated....not the American Government), Richardson said the United States should start talks through United Nations channels to end the crisis.
"What I think the administration needs to do (Nobody asked you), with all due respect, is just pick up the phone, start the preliminary talks at the U.N. in New York at a low level to set up broader talks," he said on ABC's "This Week" program (Yes "Talk" that is what Richardson and the Clinton Administration did....that really worked didnt it?).
Richardson met with Han Song Ryol, a high-ranking member of North Korea's U.N. delegation, and others in New Mexico. The North Koreans sought and received permission to speak with Richardson (No they didnt. They called him and then after Richardson agreed....Richardson called the State Dept after the fact), a Democrat and now New Mexico's governor.
Richardson said he had fully briefed Secretary of State Colin Powell (And Bill Clinton), including writing a lengthy report.
He said he disagreed with State Department officials who said after the talks that the North Koreans had failed to address "issues of concern." He said the secretive communist nation had significantly signaled a willingness to discuss its nuclear program in negotiations, and had said it did not plan to build nuclear weapons (The exact same thing they told their buddy Clinton a few years back).
"What I would suggest ... is a bilateral nonaggression binding pact that basically says the United States is ready to agree that North Korea is not going to be treated in an aggressive, hostile fashion, in other words, that we're not going to attack North Korea (No matter what they do)," Richardson said.
DIRECT TALKS IMPORTANT
"It's important that direct talks happen. I can't stress how important that is. And it can be at the technical level, low level, starting to the higher level," he added.
Washington could in turn demand the freezing and possible closure of North Korea's Soviet-built Yongbyon plant (As well as Democratic reforms.....Oh he didnt say that....nevermind) -- the plant believed to be at the center of the country's covert nuclear weapons program, which North Korean officials have said could be operable within weeks.
He also said Washington should seek commitments on the verification of nuclear weapons programs in North Korea, allowing for the return of international inspectors who could ensure any nuclear program was for peaceful purposes only (Get real).
A Bush administration official told Reuters Richardson was, "not speaking on behalf of the U.S. government."
"We've made clear our views. The president said again and again that he has no intention of invading North Korea," the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, backed Richardson's proposal (Surprise and shock).
"First of all, we have to take all actions necessary to dismantle this nuclear assembly line that the North Koreans have (Where was he when we made a deal to give them this assembly line?)," Daschle said on the same program. "Secondly, we have to express in no uncertain terms that we have no hostile intentions. The best way to do that is to do what the governor suggested, that we enter into direct talks (Yes...let's chat our way to peace)."
Richardson has a history of negotiation with North Korea that includes brokering the release of a U.S. soldier in 1994 whose helicopter had entered the country's air space and the 1996 release of a young U.S. citizen, held on spy charges (YAAAWWWNNNN).
On the same ABC news program on Sunday, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona called for economic sanctions against North Korea, calling Pyongyang an, "Orwellian Stalinist regime ruled by a sociopath."
Richardson said there was no need for sanctions against the impoverished nation and urged Washington not to take Pyongyang's public war rhetoric seriously. "They're being belligerent, in preparation, I believe, for a negotiation." (What an idiot)
North Korea, suspected by the United States of making nuclear bombs and of possibly already having two, said on Friday it was pulling out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), triggering worldwide condemnation (Condemnation without action = talk).
Analysts say Pyongyang and its secretive leader have been anxious for the survival of their administration ever since President Bush last year called North Korea part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and Iran.
Richardson said that language had been counterproductive (He failed to mention that his own actions are also counterproductive).
"It doesn't make sense also to provoke them. And ... the axis of evil statement in the past was not helpful," he said (Yes....Telling the truth was a bad idea).
North Korea has caused alarm across the world (The Word = the Left. They swooned, talked and now whine...but they dont act) since it disabled U.N. nuclear monitoring equipment and expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors last month.
A U.S. envoy arrived in Seoul on Sunday to try to defuse the crisis (To try and take the limelight away from Clinton's Janitor). U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Kelly was on his first visit to the region since October, when he said Pyongyang had admitted developing a nuclear arms program.
Meanwhile North Korea hurled fresh invective at the United States (Whatever....), saying it could disappear in "a sea of fire" (LOL!!!!!) if it attacked and again denied that Pyongyang had ever told the United States about having a nuclear arms program.
Why this administration puts up with them I don't know. Best get Powell out of there and appoint a SOS who has the stones to protect his turf.
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