Powell to Stephie: Your Boss, Not Mine, Let North Korea Have Nukes

newsmax ^ | Dec. 29, 2002 | Carl Limbacher

[TLBSHOW]

Powell to Stephie: Your Boss, Not Mine, Let North Korea Have Nukes

Appearing on ABC's "This Week" Sunday morning, Secretary of State Colin Powell challenged host George Stephanopoulos over the former Clinton aide's contentions that his old boss had managed to keep the North Korean nuclear crisis in check while the Bush administration had bungled the situation.

The exchange went like this:

STEPHANOPOULOS: In fact, the Clinton administration said that if the spent (nuclear) fuel was reprocessed that would be a red line that couldn't be crossed.

POWELL: It was crossed. During the Clinton administration the North Koreans had nuclear weapons. That was our intelligence estimate then, it's our intelligence estimate now. And in fact, the Clinton administration did have a declaratatory policy that if anything else happened at (North Korea's nuclear facility at) Yongbyon they would attack it. (End of Excerpt)

Moment earlier, Stephanopoulos cited complaints that Bush's hard line towards North Korea had contributed to the crisis.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to show something that Sen. John Kerry said the other day about the administration's policy. What he said (was), "What happened in North Korea is predictable and totally anticipated based on this administration's complete avoidance of a responsible approach to North Korea in over a year and a half. It is the absence of diplomacy, it is the absence of common sense that has brought this on." How do you respond to Sen. Kerry?

POWELL: Well, John Kerry is running for office. And I disagree with the senator as much as I respect him. The fact of the matter is that this (nuclear) program was not started during the Bush administration. It was started during the previous administration. Back in 1998 and 1999, the intelligence shows clearly that North Korea had embarked on a program of enriching uranium. And so, we inherited this problem. (End of Excerpt)

In fact, a November 1999 congressional report warned that the "Agreed Framework" negotiated with North Korea by the Clinton administration had given Pyongyang the capacity to produce 100 nuclear bombs per year.

The study was undertaken by the House North Korea Advisory Group, chaired by Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, R-N.Y. Members of the panel included Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., then chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Rep. Porter J. Goss, R-Fla., chairman of Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Christopher Cox, R-Calif., then chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.

With more than a year left in President Clinton's term, the Advisory Group cautioned that the deal that was supposed to derail Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program had instead backfired.

"Through the provision of two light water reactors [LWRs] under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the United States, through KEDO, will provide North Korea with the capacity to produce annually enough fissile material for nearly 100 nuclear bombs, should the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK] decide to violate the Nonproliferation Treaty [NPT]," the Advisory Group warned.

The report explained:

"If the 1994 Agreed Framework is implemented and two LWRs are eventually built and operated in North Korea, the reactors could produce close to 500 kilograms of plutonium in spent reactor fuel each year; enough for nearly 100 bombs annually if North Korea decides to break its obligations and reprocess the material."

Officials in Pyonyang acknowledged in October that North Korea had indeed broken its obligations under the Clinton accord and are now rapidly proceeding with a full-blown nuclear weapons program.

The Advisory Group further cautioned:

"Although the 1994 Agreed Framework was essentially aimed at eliminating North Korea's ability to make nuclear weapons, there is significant evidence that nuclear weapons development is continuing, including its efforts to acquire uranium enrichment technologies and its nuclear-related high explosive tests."

In one of the Advisory Group's most chilling observations, the report warned that since the implementation of the Clinton accord, North Korea had made significant progress in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile fleet capable of targeting the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction:

"In the last five years, North Korea's missile capabilities have improved dramatically. North Korea has produced, deployed and exported missiles to Iran and Pakistan, launched a three-stage missile [Taepo Dong 1], and continues to develop a larger and more powerful missile [Taepo Dong 2].

"Unlike five years ago, North Korea can now strike the United States with a missile that could deliver high explosive, chemical, biological, or possibly nuclear weapons. Currently, the United States is unable to defend against this threat."

The report also featured a bar graph that shows a direct correlation between increases in Clinton administration aid and North Korea's enhanced ICBM capacity.

The Advisory group also contended that the "Agreed Framework" had made North Korea "the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in the Asia-Pacific region."

"In an astonishing reversal of nine previous U.S. administrations, the Clinton-Gore administration, in 1994, committed not only to provide foreign aid for North Korea, but to earmark that aid primarily for the construction of nuclear reactors worth up to $6 billion," the House report noted.

[TLBSHOW]

Perfect link for the subject thanks a million!

[Alamo-Girl]

You're quite welcome! Hugs!!!

[For the Unborn]

I'm glad you brought up the line by George Will. That is one line my dear-departed mother quoted often. Clinton WAS the worst person ever to be president.

[okie01]

"Speaking of Senator Kerry, where was the Senate during all of this?"

As I recall, the Democrat-controlled Senate was consumed with making excuses for perjurers and obstructors of justice. Approving of sexual misbehavior...and indulging in a little of the same.

Not to mention ignoring the Cox Report...