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Clinton and North Korea
TownHall.com ^ | October 18, 2002 | Mona Charen

Posted on 10/18/2002 3:51:15 PM PDT by xsysmgr

"North Korea Says It Has a Program on Nuclear Arms" -- New York Times, Oct. 17, 2002

President Bill Clinton will be remembered by history for only one thing, which is a bit of a shame since his record is so thoroughly shabby and dishonorable that it deserves closer study.

Clinton's contribution to our vulnerability to terror has been well documented, and now comes news that another of his foreign policies has come to fruition. The North Koreans have admitted what close observers have suspected all along -- that they have a nuclear weapons program and may have already produced a number of bombs. (Oh, and by the way, worshippers of arms control treaties kindly note: North Korea is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.)

The only mystery is why Pyongyang has now chosen to admit it.

In the early 1990s, North Korea, even more than other communist states, was drowning in the consequences of its system. People were starving. A congressional study estimated that as many as 1 million died of starvation by 1998. But the regime was no less belligerent for that. Pyongyang continued to build up its military and was aggressively pursuing nuclear capability. Though its facilities were supposed to be inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, North Korea persistently delayed inspections. Meanwhile, its aggressive posture and rhetoric toward South Korea continued, as did its development of long-range missiles.

President Clinton, observing this situation, saw what needed to be done: Pyongyang would have to be appeased. As former defense secretary William Perry put it, the administration thought it "necessary to move forward in a more positive way with North Korea." In exchange for a temporary freeze on its nuclear program and a mere promise to refrain from developing such weapons in the future, the Clinton administration extended nearly $1 billion in foreign aid for food and fuel oil, as well as promising to build two light water reactors for the North Koreans.

Certainly the administration must have attached conditions? Surely it insisted that the regime provide proof that the aid was not being used for military purposes, and it must have insisted on some form of political and economic liberalization? The Clinton administration must have tied this aid package to guarantees that the North Koreans would cease exporting ballistic missiles to nations like Iran and Pakistan? Actually, no. As Perry explained, "The policy team believed that the North Korean regime would strongly resist such reform ..."

The North Koreans, rewarded for their belligerence, naturally continued down the same path. (And the lesson was probably not lost on other dangerous regimes that seeking nuclear weapons can bring goodies from Washington.) In 1998, they tested a new, three-stage ballistic missile. Did the Clinton administration at last learn the lesson that appeasement does not work? Not quite. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and William Perry held a press conference to announce that the United States was continuing to pursue good relations with North Korea: "We must deal with the North Korean government as it is, not as we wish it would be."

Accordingly, the Clinton administration proposed to lift economic sanctions on North Korea if it promised -- but this time really, sincerely promised -- to stop development of long-range missiles. The North Korean government didn't even deign to respond for a full week -- but the Clinton administration relaxed sanctions anyway.

The Clinton administration officials believed their policies toward North Korea were a success. By "engaging" Pyongyang, they believed, they had avoided war. Neville Chamberlain thought the same. Instead, the appeasement merely emboldened the North Koreans. A Republican study group concluded in 1999 that North Korea "is a greater threat to international stability" than it had been five years before, "primarily in Asia and secondarily in the Middle East." Is it conceivable that the Clinton foreign policy team really believed North Korea could be bribed into decency?

Edmund Burke warned, "There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men." That includes assuming that they will lie, cheat and betray. The liberal attachment to treaties is thus laid bare for the chimera it is. When strength and resolve were required, Bill Clinton supplied weakness and legerdemain. And in this, as in the war on terror, he has bequeathed a more dangerous world to his successor.



TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: clintonscandals; nuclearweapons
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1 posted on 10/18/2002 3:51:16 PM PDT by xsysmgr
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To: xsysmgr
If there is justice, history will remember William Jefferson Blythe Clinton as the Fifth Column President.
2 posted on 10/18/2002 3:57:44 PM PDT by Commander8
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To: xsysmgr
The only mystery is why Pyongyang has now chosen to admit it.

Mona is wrong here, the commies didn't admit anything. On Oct 5, President Bushs's envoy's presented the commies with evidence of their nuke program. After some careful consideration, they have decided that blackmail is in order.

3 posted on 10/18/2002 4:04:31 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: xsysmgr
From 1998:
He saluted Seoul's struggle to overcome Asia's economic upheaval. "I believe Asia will emerge from this present crisis more prosperous, more stable, more democratic -- thanks in no small measure to Korea's example."...Bill Clinton
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/112298/new_nukes.html
4 posted on 10/18/2002 4:05:31 PM PDT by chnsmok
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To: xsysmgr
I've never quite figured out Clinton's reasoning: Was he swayed by money ? So anxious to create a legacy as a "peace maker " ? Some sort of Ivy League closet Marxist ?

NOW he's saying: " Oh, yas. We almost went to war with North Korea - the "hawks" virtually insisted on it - but I managed to save the day , without shedding blood. "

Legally, his actions always fell short of treason ( as strictly defined by law ); but somehow, the results seem to have come out the same.

If this be foil-hatted raving, make the most of it !

5 posted on 10/18/2002 4:05:54 PM PDT by genefromjersey
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To: Commander8
If there is justice......never mind, I shouldn't be thinking such thoughts, even about Bubba.
6 posted on 10/18/2002 4:18:56 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: xsysmgr
I wonder why the New York Times did not tell the "Rest of the Story?

Oh New York Times.. forget I brought the subject up.
7 posted on 10/18/2002 4:20:02 PM PDT by tall_tex
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To: Commander8
Fifth Collumn President.. Help me out here my old timers must be kicking in. I do not have a clue what that means.

Thanks, Tom
8 posted on 10/18/2002 4:22:58 PM PDT by tall_tex
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To: Paul Atreides
Ya Hya Chouhada(Long Live The Fighters.)
9 posted on 10/18/2002 4:23:21 PM PDT by Commander8
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To: tall_tex
Fifth Column is a reference to a military tactic where the invading army has a city surrounded by four columns of soldiers and there is a fifth column, in the city itself, destroying it from within.
10 posted on 10/18/2002 4:26:13 PM PDT by Commander8
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To: xsysmgr
...HILLARY RODHAM and BILL CLINTON have been Partners with our Communist Terrorist Enemies ever since their Anti-U.S. College Days in the 1960's and 1970's.

NOTHING HAS CHANGED since.
11 posted on 10/18/2002 4:27:05 PM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE
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To: Commander8
You know it!
12 posted on 10/18/2002 4:29:14 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: ALOHA RONNIE
It would be interesting to know who their contacts were during those college days. If it is anything like the laundry list of criminals and vermin they came into contact with while in the White House, it is no wonder our country was sold out.
13 posted on 10/18/2002 4:30:41 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: Commander8
I guess why that I am confused. So the city that clinton is destroying one of ours or one of thiers?
14 posted on 10/18/2002 4:31:59 PM PDT by tall_tex
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To: tall_tex
I wonder how much he got from THEM??
15 posted on 10/18/2002 4:33:50 PM PDT by calljack
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To: calljack
I don't know, but I am sure that they think it was cheap.
16 posted on 10/18/2002 4:38:08 PM PDT by tall_tex
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To: Commander8
don't you guys get it .....this other world crap is the untowards that help the Clinton's in their
usurping of the US Constitution. Aqeida,Noreiga,
stop me anywhere, the tech bubble,the s&l's prior...
..Tyson,Bill richardson in NM, all pieces of the
puzzle to kill America....America,that stone in the
shoes of a one world,run by lawyers , grab for
the entire world.......what sickens me most ,and I mean sickens me most, is where is the pundit willing to
tell our brothers and sisters what is really going on in America......The tv twerps(the unelectable congress)
spew what is wrong here daily,not whats wrong there

where is the balls to explain this to america
nationally....and my last pet peave......
what is hell is a gdamn canadian doing giving the
American news on ABC
17 posted on 10/18/2002 4:42:53 PM PDT by cactusSharp
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To: Paul Atreides; FreddieKruger; Joy Angela; Snow Bunny; kristinn; Angelwood; Carl/NewsMax; ...
...You are so right on, PAUL.

NEVER FORGET ...it was ROGER CLINTON who went on a Rock Show Tour to North Korea to pick up Communist Money during the CLINTON Administration, BILL CLINTON who went to the then Communist Soviet Union to pick up his Communist Money funding of his Anti-U.S. Demonstrations in front of our U.S. Embassy in London during the Vietnam War, and HILLARY RODHAM and CHELSEA CLINTON who never smiled so broadly as when they were on their trip through a Communist-Enslaved Vietnam before leaving our White House.

They all want to "MAKE IT SO" here.

With HILLARY RODHAM now running for President of the United States in 2004 and with her China Army Money Man/DNC Chairman TERRY MacAULIFFE sending out 4,000 Democrat Attorneys out on all our Voting Precincts to cancel out our Votes...

the Enemy is now Within...

and always has been.

To win at War...

you must first know your Enemy.

Signed: ALOHA RONNIE / Vet-Battle of IA DRANG-1965 / Landing Zone Falcon / www.lzxray.com


18 posted on 10/18/2002 5:05:34 PM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE
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To: cactusSharp
...BILL RICHARDSON =

...Energy Secretary after serving 11 years as a Congressman from Los Alamos, New Mexico...

...who approved the forest fires around Los Alamos, New Mexico...

...that resulted in the loss of our Suitcase NUKE Technology.

...And we wonder WHY we are ducking Suitcase NUKE's now...?
19 posted on 10/18/2002 5:08:22 PM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE
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To: genefromjersey
I've never quite figured out Clinton's reasoning: Was he swayed by money ? So anxious to create a legacy as a "peace maker " ? Some sort of Ivy League closet Marxist ?

No, no no.

Klink has always been and will always be driven by one thing and one thing only, the adoration of the masses. The guy has no center, no principles, nothing he is an amorphous piece of crap, a shapechanger driven by polling an an insane desire to be God.

20 posted on 10/18/2002 5:09:55 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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