Suggestions on N. Korea

Will THIS really happen?

Thursday, March 06, 2003 1:19 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday the stationing of U.S. troops near the border with North Korea has become intrusive to South Korea, and said forces could be moved southward or out of South Korea altogether.

Rumsfeld said Army Gen. Leon LaPorte, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, and others are considering ways to realign American forces on the Korea Peninsula.

 

Jonathan Rauch gets the scoop from a "senior Bush official"

"But -- back to the official -- aren't China and other countries in the region running for the hills anyway? Calling for diplomatic pressure is all well and good; but, as the Star Tribune (like many others) says, 'That approach has failed.'

"No, it hasn't, replies the official. 'China, South Korea, Japan, Russia, and the E.U. have all told North Korea that reprocessing is a red line,' the official said. 'I think that has caused the North Koreans some pause, because the Chinese never went in this hard before, and neither have the Japanese.' The prospect of diplomatic isolation may be part of the reason the North Koreans have not taken the fateful step of firing up their reprocessing facility. 'They're flailing in all directions. The important thing is that, as far as we know at this point, they have not crossed the Rubicon of reprocessing.'

"Publicly, China has said it prefers bilateral, U.S.-North Korea negotiations. 'For China domestically,' says the official, 'this is incredibly tough. However, we're getting lots of movement from China. We're talking to the Chinese now not about bilateral versus multilateral but about the modalities of making a multilateral approach work.'"
http://nationaljournal.com/rauch.htm
"Yes, Bush Has A North Korea Policy. It Might Even Work."
March 14, 2003 National Journal

So--can China, with a new leadership, be brought on board to recognize a different "self-interest" from the one she's claimed in the past (as I argued earlier might just be possible)? Tune in again, after Iraq...(which itself may be a chastening "lesson" to Kim Jong Ill.)

--Orson

 

Re: Exploratory Committee???

Kim Il Jong would rather deal with people who have the same intellectual capacity as his military advisors:
Captain Kangaroo
PeeWee Herman
Rocky & Bullwinkle
Roger Ramjet
Batman & Robin

And their "under-the-table" special operations liaison could be Monica Lewinski

 

Things might just be moving in the direction I suggested they might in earlier post:

In other words, perhaps China sees Kim Jong Ill as more liability than asset--ergo, China shuts down their oil pipeline to N. Korea, sending NOT so inscrutable message.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"From Beijing, stern words for an uneasy ally
China seen toughening stance against N. Korea nuclear development "

By Gady A. Epstein
Sun Foreign Staff
Originally published March 28, 2003


"BEIJING - For three straight days in recent weeks, something remarkable happened to the oil pipeline running through northeast China to North Korea - the oil stopped flowing, according to diplomatic sources, temporarily cutting off a vital lifeline for North Korea.

"The pipeline shutdown, officially ascribed to a technical problem, followed an unusually blunt message delivered by China to its longtime ally in a high-level meeting in Beijing last month, the sources said. Stop your provocations about the possible development of nuclear weapons, China warned its neighbor, or face Chinese support for economic sanctions against the regime.

"Such tough tactics show an unexpected resolve in Beijing's policy toward Pyongyang, and hint at the nervousness of Chinese leaders about North Korea's nuclear ambitions and North Korea's tensions with the United States.

"With the Bush administration asking China to take a more active role, Beijing's application of pressure could convince North Korea to drop its demands for talks exclusively with the United States - a demand that Washington rejects."

http://www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/bal-te.china28mar28,0,6270959.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

--Orson

 

My proferred scenario appears to be coming true...but why?

A scenario I proposed months ago--that the North Korea may be tamed by the successful prosecution of war in Iraq--appears to be coming true if the prospective US/S Korea/China meeting with North Korea comes off next week.

But why will it?

One Gregory Copley (with the Institute for International Strategic Studies?), who's association I've been unable to source successfully, stated late a few nights ago on Fox News that this is because Iran and North Korea have had a mutual distraction pact--ie, if either nation was threatened by the US, et al, they were to distract and divide them...

HAS anyone else read about this? I've not! This is big news to me.
If true, the the "Axis of Evil" phras so much derrided is both more accurate and telling than many many ever gave it creedence for.

Copley finished by explaining that that's why, after Iraq, North Korea is willing to back off of its earlier insistence on unlateral talks.

--Orson

 

Remove our 37,000 troops and leave to those ungrateful bastards to defend their own country. Of course, that would include re-arming Japan, which China won't stand for. But our unilateral withdrawl would at least cause China to put a stop to their client's misbehavior. And it would get Americans out of harm's way, unlike that stupid aggression on Iraq.