Sounds like the PLAN is working, "THE AXIS OF EVIL" may just turn out to be words that end up changing the world more than ANYONE might have thought, STRATEGERY at its best.
Sounds like the PLAN is working,
This is far less 'master plan' than it is skillful opportunism. Rats want to leave a sinking ship, and the means to do so are being facilitated.
Were Bush of a different ideological makeup, the North Korean regime would not be in nearly so desperate a situation. As it is now, the life support plugs are being subtly cut, and everyone in the government knows that past a certain point, collapse is unavoidable. Now more than ever they are desperate to sell missiles, narcotics, and expertise to whoever will buy it, but the noose is silently tightening.
When our envoys meet, it is at our conveniece, when the DPRK reps make absurd claims and refuse to budge, we shrug, and move on. We don't have much time to deal with Kim, but he has far less to deal with us. We can run out the clock.
Kim is desperate for us to take the bait of his provocative acts, both political and military. He's scared, because he need more than money from us. He needs a threat. The mid level commanders and officials, the backbone of the regime, may be slipping in loyalty. Right now, all Kim can offer is starvation, poverty, and constant threats of death and prison.
After 50 years of living under a foriegn menace that has yet to set foot in North Korea, they may well believe that we're not coming. America as a boogieman may have been believable growing up, but the real monster they remember is starvation. If so, the entire political dynamic could be vulnerable to desperate men who will not stand to starved again.
By leaving North Korea in desperation, the few people there who have access to the real numbers can quickly tally the score, and see that their glorious revolution is imminently doomed. Bush won't offer real aid, or make a hard military move, or anything that would play into the hands of Kim. His aims appear simple and effective: Let North Korea fail by its own devices, and give them no means to further use us as a unifying threat.