posted on July 26, 2003 08:57:57 PM newOld soldiers from around the world, some in wheelchairs and many wearing combat medals, commemorated the 50th anniversary Sunday of the armistice that ended the Korean War.
posted on July 27, 2003 06:29:55 PM new
From your article, kiara.
In a statement marking the armistice anniversary, United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed for a diplomatic solution.
"Resolving the nuclear and related security issues has got to be
the most pressing priority," Annan said. "The 50th anniversary
offers an opportunity to disperse the ominous cloud that, for too long,
has threatened the stability and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula."
U.S. officials, who believe North Korea already has one or two nuclear
bombs, are seeking a diplomatic solution to entice the North to give up
its nuclear program, and South Korean officials say talks with the North
could come in August. But Washington also is keeping up pressure on the
North by refusing its demand for a nonaggression pact and has considered
stepping up economic sanctions on the impoverished nation.
North Korea wants security guarantees and economic aid from the United States. That's a small price to pay to avoid nuclear war or proliferation of weapons throughout the mid-east.
posted on July 27, 2003 06:39:34 PM new
I don't see why the Koreans would believe the US and I don't see why the US would believe the Koreans.
Both sides have lied to each other like crazy.
07/28/03: (USA TODAY ) WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is preparing
to tighten an economic noose around North Korea, even as it considers new talks to
persuade the regime of Kim Jong Il to give up nuclear
The administration has lined up 10 other nations to join a so-called proliferation security
initiative. These countries -- Japan, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland,
the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Spain -- have agreed to intercept North Korean ships
suspected of carrying weapons and illegal drugs, major sources of hard currency for
Kim's government.
A State Department official who is familiar with the program but asks not to be named
says, ''We're ready to rock and roll right now'' on the interception program. ''All we need
is actionable intelligence'' on a suspect North Korean shipment, he says.
Despite administration assurances that it seeks a diplomatic solution to the crisis, State
Department officials are not optimistic about the prospects for new talks, which could
take place as early as next month in Beijing. ''No one has a good, new solution to this
problem,'' one concedes.
U.S. intelligence shows that North Korea is accelerating its nuclear program by reprocessing
used reactor fuel. It could produce enough plutonium for a half-dozen bombs this year,
in addition to the two bombs' worth it is believed to have had for a decade. The regime's
goal is to ensure its survival and deter attacks by becoming the world's ninth nuclear arms
power. The others: the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, Pakistan, India and Israel.
The Bush administration says it is willing to talk to North Korea, but only if Pyongyang agrees
that diplomats from Japan and South Korea, as well as China, eventually take part. Diplomats
are trying to craft a common position to present to North Korea. But an Asian official in
Washington says the administration is reluctant even to call the position a ''proposal,'' for fear
of looking like it is following the route of the Clinton administration. In 1994, that administration
traded economic and political concessions for a North Korean freeze of its nuclear program.
That agreement capped plutonium production, but it unraveled last fall after North Korea admitted
that it had a second, secret program to make enriched uranium for bombs.
''We've made it very clear that we will not give in to blackmail,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan
says. He denies published reports that the administration was considering offering a formal security guarantee
if North Korea gave up its nuclear program.
Victor Cha, a North Korea expert at Georgetown University, calls the Bush approach ''the least worst
option. Putting multilateral pressure on the regime has never been tried before.''
Others say the administration squandered a chance to slow North Korea's nuclear development two years
ago when it dropped the Clinton strategy of one-on-one negotiations and began branding the Kim regime as ''evil.''
''In the last two years, we've convinced the North Koreans that we're out to get them,'' says Robert Einhorn,
a proliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Einhorn negotiated with the North
Koreans under the Clinton administration.
Kenneth Quinones, a former Korea analyst for the State Department, says the United States has three options
for dealing with Pyongyang, all of them ''just absolutely appalling'':
* Attack North Korea and risk retaliation that would kill more than a million South Koreans and many U.S. troops.
* Hope the Chinese, who provide 70% of North Korea's fuel and a third of its food, ''will pull the rug out from under'' Pyongyang.
That could lead to a deeper humanitarian crisis in North Korea and massive refugee flows but not necessarily bring down the regime.
* Learn to live with a nuclear North Korea.
Failure to contain the program could have dire consequences.
''If North Korea continues on its present course, by the end of the year, I think we'll have about eight nuclear weapons,
and next year will be in serial production of about five to 10 nuclear weapons a year,'' former Defense secretary William Perry
told PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on Monday. Such an escalation, Perry said, would give the North Koreans enough weapons
to target Japan and South Korea and to sell bomb material to terrorists.
