Defying the conventional thinking, Kim Jong-il of North Korea tested several short-range missiles. While the media goes into panic mode let’s take a deep breath and look at some facts:
The country has an estimated 23,000,000 citizens.
Since the meltdown of the USSR and the economic reforms occurring in China, North Korea’s role in the alliance of communist countries has deteriorated.
The country’s economy is primarily based on agriculture, which is unstable at times due to climate changes and world demand. Additionally issues such as fuel shortages and a lack of new farm equipment have plagued the state managed farms, thus creating inefficiencies in crop yields.
Since 1995 North Korea has been dealt food shortages.
Source: CIA World Fact Book
The poverty rate for North Korea is not publicly known although films smuggled out of the country appear to show that a significant portion of the current population is starving. The few images suggest if one is not employed by either the military or government they are most likely living in dismal conditions.
In 1985 North Korea signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. This agreement was supposed to be the answer for the removal of a nuclear threat. It has since become a quagmire of controversy. In 1993 North Korea publicly expressed the possibility of withdrawing from the agreement. In 1994 North Korea refused to allow inspectors in their country to view their nuclear capabilities. This was in clear violation of the Treaty. As a result of their actions former President Jimmy Carter engaged in talks with North Korea.
What then occurred was indicative of Carter and your author dares say Clinton as well. Carter has long suffered from two-self defeating characteristics. The first is the belief that peace is achieved by agreements and handshaking. If this theory worked then Hitler would have never been close enough to bomb Great Britain. In other words Hitler continually violated the Treaty of Versailles so many times that he nearly consumed all of Europe under the flag of the National Socialist Workers Party. The second failure in Carter’s reasoning is that his objectives were rooted in the short-term, which only ensures that such issues or problems will come back to haunt the world. Often times they will return ten fold.
Carter bought China’s claim that stated if the United States implemented a trade embargo that in a show of defiance North Korea may launch a nuclear attack. What was really happening was an example of passing the buck off to another and in hopes they would deal with the situation. To make matters even more complicated North Korea leader Kim Il-sung passed away in 1994, passing the mantle and legacy of brutality to his son Kim Jong-il.
Carter returned to the United States grandstanding on the notion he had achieved the impossible. Carter expressed how open and honest Kim Jong-il, whose legendary bizarre behavior is well-documented, had been with him. Well yes he was honest because Carter brokered a deal that called for the United States’ money and know-how to build power plants with light water reactors. The US would also kick in some aide along with fuel to get these plants running because they weren’t going to be used in the production of weapons and would benefit the starving masses. Carter’s laundry list of North Korea’s demands totaled an estimated $4 billion for the plants and $100 million for the fuel. Additionally the US would lift economic sanctions against North Korea. President Clinton was not fully aware of this deal until Carter set foot back on US soil. It took then Vice President Al Gore to convince Clinton that this deal was solid and that North Korea’s communist hierarchy was good on their word.
This moment of Carter playing the fool, a laughing North Korea and the US the victim of extortion was heralded as a great achievement by the mainstream media, most notably The New York Times. It more than likely influenced the decision to award Carter the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. What this agreement did was guarantee that North Korea would be knocking on the US’s door for more. As the old adage goes ‘give a foot, you give a mile’. Another phrase that comes to mind was Vladimir Lenin’s description of Westerners, specifically those in the United States that endorsed Russia’s communist policy as being ‘useful idiots’.
Clinton would fall back on the agreement in the years after, citing that it was success on the foreign policy front. In all actuality it was a failure the same way his handling of The Balkans with regards to no troops on the ground and bombing Serbia to pieces was a failure and his demands that IRA terrorists be released from British prisons as he legitimized the terror group by having them agree to disarm spoke of the desperate measures he was willing to take. North Korea was just one of many failed foreign policies under the Clinton administration. The North Korean extortion agreement reared its ugly head before Clinton was able to coast out of Office when in 1998 it was discovered that North Korea had purchased equipment, most notably a working gas centrifuge used to enrich uranium, from Pakistan.
As George W. Bush took Office in 2000 he and his administration made it clear that North Korea’s ride on easy street was over much to Kim Jung-il’s chagrin. Bush would no longer allow the United States to be a victim of a shakedown, calling a spade a spade. In December 2002 the Bush administration stopped the shipment of fuel to North Korea.
What baffled your author the most was the apparent denial and shortsightedness of many Democrats and Clinton supporters that the agreement chiseled out by Carter was void of substance. We buy peace for now but ultimately the basket will have to be turned upside down some time in the future. In 2003 North Korea showed their true colors when they officially withdrew from the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. The foolishness displayed by the Bush critics became ever more apparent during a 2004 Presidential town hall style debate between President Bush and his opponent Democrat Senator from Massachusetts John Kerry. The Senator suggested that Iraq War must encompass a unilateral coalition, which was the mantra of the left. He then answered North Korea by stating that the removal of Japan, South Korea and China from dealing with North Korea was crucial. In other words attempt to bring in some European countries, most notably France who your author questions is even an ally of ours, with regards to Iraq. But when it comes to North Korea turn the cold shoulder to an established ally-Japan. John Kerry tried to sell the idea of the threat of North Korea and their nuclear capabilities to the United States, which was also the drumbeat of the left. Well it’s a relief he didn’t win the Presidency because in July 2006 North Korea launched four or five short-range missiles that landed in the Sea of Japan. Imagine the United States under Kerry trying to hammer out an agreement with North Korea while a shunned ally of ours sits still with bombs being hurled over their heads.
Now it is October 2006 and Kim Jung-il claims to have tested their first nuclear weapon at an undisclosed underground site. Jimmy Carter and Clinton cannot claim to have been a success with North Korea. The left cannot use this sound bite in their desperate attempt to assassinate the character of President Bush. China has much to be concerned about because quite possibly both South Korea and Japan will ramp up their military efforts, capitulating a see saw effect as it relates to power in Asia. Predictably Democrat Senator Harry Reid condemned North Korea’s action but was quick to suggest the Bush administration of being paralyzed because of Iraq thus not able to keep an eye on Kim Jung-il. Senator Ted Kennedy, Democrat from Massachusetts, proclaimed it was time to go into ‘diplomatic overdrive’. Let’s just hope he doesn’t mean employing Kerry’s suggestions.
The answer will come in two fold. First that group of countries that Senator Kerry wished to ignore-South Korea, Japan and China-must make it their issue. While South Korea and Japan will be probably be first in taking the initiative, China must thump some of the skulls of North Korea’s top political brass. Their hand has been slow to react for the past ten years but as soon as South Korea and Japan begin to make moves watch how quickly things will change. Additionally the current chair for the UN Security Council, Japan’s Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, will play a critical role.
The second step is already taking place. The United States has taken an active role in freezing the bank accounts linked to North Korea. A month or so without pay and Kim Jung il’s military will question him as a leader. This is priority in dismantling any military state regime.
What we don’t need to do is to rely on the likes of Jimmy Carter and the left who felt the need to legitimize a leader determined to be heard while in process watched his own citizenry become emaciated. The fall of the USSR and Germany in World War II was achieved by proactive measures not reactionary appeasement. In the arena of global politics gladly suffering from fools has never been the answer. Despite the history that proves this is true the lesson must be revisited.
