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DOES US WANT WAR WITH NORTH KOREA?

Comment by Larry Ross, June 23, 2005

Bush knows enemies are much more politically potent vote-getters than peace partners looking for a solution to a very expensive 50 year problem. The US and Korea are still at war and Bush wants to keep it that way. So he spurned Kim's offer of nuclear peace talks.

The US has 10,000 nuclear weapons and Trident subs loaded with nuclear missiles cruising off the Coast of North Korea. They can wipe out North Korea anytime. Nevertheless the US propaganda machine will portray it as the ultra dangerous enemy with it's few nuclear weapons. They will be used by the US to justify any action in accordance with new US nuclear doctrines which allow the US to make nuclear war pre-emptively, anytime the US claims a country is a threat. Like Bush claimed Saddam Hussein was a big threat before he invaded with huge support from the US public, Congress and Media. This was all revealed as a series of big lies.

Will the Bush Administration be able to get away with the same tactics a second time with North Korea?
Will Bush start a new war, then use nuclear weapons against North Korea? He would use the expected litany of lies to justify it as he successfully did to justify the Iraq war.

I fear that the majority of the US public, media and Congress would accept Bush's excuses for using nuclear weapons 'to save American lives' ' because there was an imminent nuclear threat' 'for peace, freedom and democracy', etc.

As the future of themselves, their descendants and the planet is at stake, I hope Americans are more active to stop Bush this time.

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Bush spurned 2002 North Korea overture

Reuters, June 22, 2005

WASHINGTON: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il attempted to engage president George W Bush directly on the nuclear weapons issue three years ago but the administration spurned the overture, two American experts on Asia said yesterday.

Writing in the Washington Post, former US ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg and former journalist Don Oberdorfer expressed concern that Kim's November 2002 initiative was never pursued and urged Bush to respond positively to Kim's present overture, made last week.

When Bush took office in 2001, US officials estimated the North had fuel for one or two nuclear weapons. Now, that estimate is up to at least half a dozen and, the authors said, "many believe their claim to have fabricated the weapons themselves."

Gregg and Oberdorfer said they visited the North in November 2002, after then-US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly was there and accused the North of pursuing a secret programme of enriching uranium for nuclear weapons.

The North froze its weapons-related plutonium programme in 1994 under an agreement with the United States.

But the discovery of the uranium programme - which the North first acknowledged and then denied - fanned administration doubts about the North's trustworthiness.

It also led to an impasse between the North and the US during a period when officials say the North advanced its nuclear capability.

Gregg and Oberdorfer said while in Pyongyang in 2002 "we were given a written personal message from Kim to Bush."

Kim stated if the US recognised the North's sovereignty and provided non-aggression assurances "it is our view that we should be able to find a way to resolve the nuclear issue in compliance with the demands of a new century."

Also in the message, Kim further promised "if the United States makes a bold decision, we will respond accordingly," the authors wrote in an opinion piece.

They said they took the message to senior White House and State Department officials and urged them to follow up on Kim's initiative. But the administration, then planning for the Iraq invasion, "spurned engagement with North Korea," Gregg and Oberdorfer said.

Within weeks, Kim expelled UN inspectors, withdrew from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and reopened plutonium production facilities frozen since 1994.

Since June 2004, the North has boycotted six-nation talks designed to resolve the nuclear crisis and raised tensions by declaring itself a nuclear weapons state.

Hence, Kim's statement last Friday presents a "rare opportunity to move promptly towards ending the dangerous nuclear proliferation crisis in Northeast Asia," wrote Gregg and Oberdorfer.

Kim told a senior South Korean envoy visiting Pyongyang he would rejoin the six-nation talks if the US "recognises and respects" his country. He also raised the prospect of North Korea rejoining the NPT and readmitting UN nuclear monitors.

Gregg and Oberdorfer said Bush should "seize the moment" to communicate directly with Kim and consider sending Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill to Pyongyang to prepare for a visit by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

"The purpose would be to explore the policies behind Kim's words to determine whether practical arrangements can be made, subject to approval by our partners in the six-nation talks, to end the dangerous North Korean nuclear programme," they said.

US officials have said they recognise the North's sovereignty, have no plans to invade and would provide security guarantees and move toward normal relations once the nuclear issue was resolved.

But some US officials have also persisted in calling the North an "outpost of tyranny," which rankles Pyongyang and has also irritated US ally South Korea.

Bush knows enemies are much more politically potent vote-getters than peace partners looking for a solution to a very expensive 50 year problem. The US and Korea are still at war and Bush wants to keep it that way. So he spurned Kim's offer of nuclear peace talks.
The US has 10,000 nuclear weapons and Trident subs loaded with nuclear missiles cruising off the Coast of North Korea. They can wipe out North Korea anytime. Nevertheless the US propaganda machine will portray it as the ultra dangerous enemy with it's few nuclear weapons.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il attempted to engage President Bush directly on the nuclear weapons issue three years ago but the administration spurned the overture, two American experts on Asia said on Wednesday.
Writing in the Washington Post, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg and former journalist Don Oberdorfer expressed concern that Kim's November 2002 initiative was never pursued and urged Bush to respond positively to his current overture, made last week.