Posted on 07/26/2003 7:10:47 PM PDT by Dundee
Pyongyang demands US leaders atone for war crimes
North Korea is prepared to conduct a nuclear test unless the United States responds positively to its proposals for resolving a row over Pyongyang's weapons ambitions, Japanese and North Korean sources were quoted as saying by a Japanese newspaper yesterday.
The Asahi Shimbun said this had been conveyed to US envoy Jack Pritchard by a North Korean official in a secret meeting between officials from the two nations earlier this month.
Last week, diplomatic sources in Tokyo said the North was ready to declare itself a member of the nuclear club, opening the way for possible tests and increased weapons production, unless the nuclear crisis is resolved by September 9 - the anniversary of the communist nation's founding.
Cautious hopes of a breakthrough in the crisis over North Korea's nuclear arms program had risen since China sent an envoy to Pyongyang earlier this month, apparently to suggest a compromise format for negotiations.
Ahead of this weekend's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Korean War truce, North Korea had demanded the US apologise and give compensation for crimes ranging from genocide to drug smuggling.
The "International tribunal on US crimes" pronounced on Friday that US President George Bush and his 10 predecessors going back to Harry Truman are guilty of crimes against the UN charter, human rights declarations and "the principles of the military tribunal of Nuremberg".
"The US government must make an official apology for all its criminal acts in Korea and make due compensation for physical, mental and material losses inflicted upon the Korean people," North Korea's KCNA news service quoted the verdict as saying.
Those responsible for the "crimes" should "be sentenced to criminal punishment" and the US Congress should "address this issue", it said.
The tribunal also repeated Pyongyang's official position that Washington "abandon its hostile policy towards the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), sign a non-aggression treaty with it, and settle peace issues in bilateral talks.
The verdict calls for the US to immediately withdraw its 37,000 troops in the South and end political pressure, sanctions and "psychological warfare" against North Korea, KCNA reported.
It said the "trial" of the 11 US leaders - and all US foreign policy, military and intelligence officials dating back to 1950 - was endorsed by "democratic international organisations, progressive anti-war peace organisations, justice-loving individual figures and lawyers".
The purported trial in absentia opened in Pyongyang on Wednesday, as the communist state appeared to be inching toward a new round of talks with the US, China and other neighbours over North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Soviet-backed North Korea launched the Korean War with a surprise invasion of the South on June 25, 1950. Then US president Truman rallied the UN to send troops from 16 countries to reverse the communist takeover of the South.
North Korea officially maintains it was both the victim and the victor in a war started by the US.
"The US provoked the Korean War and has made persistent attempts to ignite another war," said the Pyongyang indictment, which also accused US presidents of drug trafficking, human rights abuses and violating nuclear disarmament agreements.
Patience, grasshopper.
We're not just jumping in there with guns blazing, because of the number of U.S. troops and dependents, and innocent South Korean citizens, who live near the DMZ and who could be wiped out in the first wave of an attack or reprisal by North Korea (it's personal to me, since I have relatives among them).
We'll get to it, it just has to be done carefully. The threats are annoying, but as long as they are still talking, they aren't hurting anyone...and the regime is getting weaker and weaker.
We are walking a tightrope here, however.
Korea isn't Iraq. It won't happen. Better we repeal the law signed by Ford that forbids the execution of nutjob leaders.
Yeah, they are. :-(
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