North Korea Fires Missiles
The timing was perfect, if designed to cause maximum irritation.
Minutes after the US carried out their first ever Fourth of July shuttle launch, the North Koreans responded with the provocative firing of up to six missiles in the long range nuclear missile test that the US warned them not to make.
The US can take some comfort from the fact that the long range missile failed within seconds of lift off, although it will also be noticed around the world that the US threat to shoot the missile out of air using the first phase of the Bush administration's planned national missile defence system was quietly abandoned, one can only presume out of fear of a similar failure to the one endured by the North Koreans.
One failure that is harder to hide though, is the total failure of George Bush's foreign policy stance towards the North Koreans.
Under Clinton, the North Koreans were closely monitored, with cameras installed in the nuclear reactor and the North Korean regime remained a signatory to the Nuclear non Proliferation Treaty and, as such, was open for inspections. Some argue that it would still have been possible for the North Koreans to have operated a clandestine nuclear policy if they wished to acquire the bomb, and whilst this may be true, it is undeniable that it would have been easier to spot any possible infraction with inspections rather than without.
And the latter course is the one that Bush chose to follow.
In March 2001, during a visit to South Korea, Bush stunned the world when he announced that he did not intend to resume Clinton-era talks with North Korea. This was a public slap in the face of the South Korean leader, Kim Dae-jung, as he was known to favour a resumption of the talks.
From there relations between the US and North Korea quickly deteriorated with Kim Jong-il describing Bush as an "imbecile" and a "tyrant that puts Hitler in the shade".
Since Bush adopted this strange stance, the cameras came out of the nuclear reactor and North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear non Proliferation Treaty, leaving them free to pursue their nuclear interests.
None of this need have happened had Bush not been intent on pursuing his ABC (Anything But Clinton) policy.
The truth is that Bush rejected Clinton's policy without ever really coming up with a policy of his own, the end result is a nuclear North Korea.
And it not only happened on Bush's watch, it was the predictable outcome of the Bush administration's lack of a viable plan.
The failure of the North Koreans to deliver their payload should not distract from the fact that the payload exists and that, given time, they will be able to deliver.
Bush needs to use this window of opportunity to drop his vapid rhetoric and to urgently re-engage in talks with North Korea.
Having utterly failed in the first place, he has a brief chance to make amends. He should swiftly take it.
Click title for full article.
Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment