North Korea warns US that it will test again

It's impossible to work out what Bush's policy towards North Korea actually is. I suspect this is because they actually don't have one.

Now that their policy of "doing nothing" and refusing to have any form of negotiation with Pyongyang has resulted in the North Koreans acquiring the nuclear bomb - a fact that the Bush administration continue to try to fudge - they seem to be expending all their energy on claims that "Clinton's policy" towards the North Koreans failed.

Mr Bush brushed aside a renewed call by Kofi Annan, the outgoing UN secretary general, for bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang. That strategy, adopted by the Clinton administration, had failed, the President said, arguing that the currently stalled six-nation process represented the best chance of achieving a diplomatic solution.

Bush seems to be wilfully ignoring the fact that North Korea did not arm itself on Clinton's watch, it armed itself on Bush's watch after he had ripped up the deal Clinton had negotiated which had successfully prevented North Korea acquiring a nuclear weapon.

I actually wonder what power Bush imagines he holds as President. When it suits him, this power is almost unlimited, allowing him to rip up Habeus Corpus and follow only those laws which he deems appropriate. However, whenever something goes wrong, it is invariably the fault of someone else - usually President Clinton - and one would be forgiven for thinking that Bush has had almost no power at all for the past five years.

The policy towards North Korea has been the responsibility of the Bush administration for half a decade. That's long enough for you to have made an impact.

The truth is that Bush's non-engagement policy has resulted in turning a blind eye and concentrating on Iraq - who represented no threat - whilst ignoring North Korea and subjecting them to little more scrutiny than the odd empty verbal threat.

Now, in order to make the link between Bush's non-action and North Korea's nuclear actions abundantly clear, the North Koreans have tied all future nuclear testing to the reaction or non-reaction of the United States.

As Japan announced sweeping bilateral sanctions, North Korea's deputy leader, Kim Yong Nam, warned that further pressure from the US might lead to more tests.

"The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to US policy towards our country," he told a visiting delegation from Japan's Kyodo news agency. "If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude ... we will have no choice but to take physical steps to deal with that."

In other words, no talks with the US will ensure further nuclear testing by North Korea.

I suspect the Bush regime are now in a corner as, to allow talks now, is almost to concede that it was their lack of talks which caused the North Koreans to arm themselves in the first place.

However, the fact that the Bush policy has failed is proved by the very fact that North Korea now have a nuclear bomb when they previously did not. It would be fantastical to expect an administration who see the "roots of freedom" forming in the Iraqi carnage to accept such an obvious truth.

At his press conference, a notably defensive Mr Bush rejected charges that Monday's apparent nuclear test in remote north-eastern North Korea proved that his policy had failed. Instead, he blamed the "intransigence" of Kim Jong Il for the present crisis. North Korea had been trying to secure bombs and missiles "long before I came into office", and was responsible for what had happened.

The simple truth is that we all knew Kim Jong had been trying to obtain nukes long before Bush came into office. It is for precisely that reason that stopping him from doing so should have been a priority for the Bush administration.

The administration adopted a policy of non-engagement and, indeed, even named North Korea as part of an Axis of Evil, which Bush must have realised would only speed up all attempts by Pyongyang to obtain the ultimate deterrent.

Faced with these easily predictable events, the Bush regime - led by Cheney - continued to insist that North Korea must disarm before talks could take place. The same tactic that they are employing with Iran whom they insist must cease enriching uranium before any talks can happen.

The end result is obvious. Neither country will desist without talks ensuring their security. A security which the Bush regime don't want to ensure.

What Bush is now anxious to avoid is the responsibility for the consequences of that failed policy.

But the President failed to explain why he had once declared that a nuclear North Korea was "intolerable" - yet had now permitted it to happen. He also sidestepped questions about any "red line" that could not be crossed in future, saying merely that the international community would be sending "a clear message" of its views to Pyongyang.

The truth is that the time for Bush to have any influence over North Korea's actions has long passed. He will now threaten sanctions which will have little effect and certainly won't result in North Korea disarming.

The whole aim of the policy was to prevent a nuclear North Korea. We now have exactly that.

Only in the world of the neo-cons could this be considered anything other than an abject failure.

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tag: Bush, North, Korea, nuclear, tests, bomb, containment, policy, failure, Kim Jong Il, Clinton