Someone Please Staple Kim Geun-Tae’s Lips Together

This is an act that damages our national pride and is not appropriate for the South Korea-U.S. alliance.”

Kim Geun Tae, head of S. Korea’s ruling party and North Korea’s favorite
dancing piggy, on hearing that the United States actually intends
to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718.

When I worried aloud that the United States would ease sanctions on North Korea during the pendency of the next round of endless, pointless six-party extortion denuclearization talks, I based my concern in part on Korean reports that turned out to be a case of wishful thinking. That thinking later turned to confusion, and finally, to the sort of bitter, infantile braying that has so effectively isolated South Korea in the latest round of diplomacy. It must have hurt that South Korea was the last to know that talks would resume. The United States, China, and North Korea met alone. Neither South Korea’s long-term benefactor nor the recipient of $7 billion of its taxpayers’ money spent the dime to call them.

What’s remarkable is that they wonder why.

Today, the United States clarified that it will implement Resolution 1718 as long as it remains in force, suggesting that it would remain in force until North Korea gave up its nukes. It also said that it expects North Korea to demonstrate that it’s serious about disarming. It did not rule out a lifting of sanctions on North Korea’s ill-gotten deposits in Banco Delta Asia, however. The Korean press reports and officials don’t seem to grasp a key distinction here: Treasury sanctions on BDA are a matter of U.S. law; the U.N. sanctions are a different matter under a different authority.

Christopher Hill promised to “make his best efforts” to resolve its financial disagreements with North Korea, but that he was “not confident of the outcome,” at least that’s what “a senior South Korean government official” told a journalist. Hill also told the North Koreans that yes, in fact, the United States would comply with and implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718. U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow explained the American position at exactly the kind of place that few of his predecessors had the vision to visit — a college in Seoul:

“We are all encouraged that in Beijing on Tuesday North Korea agreed to return to the six-party talks without pre-conditions. This is a welcome step, but there’s a long way to go before the North Korean nuclear crisis is resolved.

“It remains a task of the international community to convince the DPRK (North Korea) that it must fulfill its commitment to the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he said. “Resolution 1718 was passed unanimously, and remains in force until North Korea complies with its terms, that is until North Korea is denuclearized.”

Yet the North Koreans still came back to the table. It was Kim Geun Tae who lost his cool, or more accurately, saw a chance to advance his presidential ambitions through dime-store demagoguery. Vershbow’s ambassadorial response was that he “‘respects’ Kim’s opinion,” and wisely left it at that.  He was more blunt when he defended the Proliferation Security Initiative against Uri’s distortions recently.

U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow on Monday slammed senior Korean politicians for their “absurd” belief that joining the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative aimed at intercepting North Korean ships would cause immediate military conflict.

….

The envoy said if more countries starting with South Korea took an active role in the PSI, it would send North Korea a clear and strong message and help resolve the nuclear crisis.

Asked about his feelings on the South Korean government’s decision to continue with joint projects like the Kaesong Industrial Complex and tours to Mt. Kumgang in the wake of the North’s nuclear test, Vershbow said he expects the government to give those ventures another long, hard look in light of UN Security Council Resolution 1718. The ambassador said the resolution aims to block the flow of money that directly or indirectly goes to the production of weapons of mass destruction. He added North Korea is an economy where it is hard to draw the line between government and civilian spheres.

Lest the next round of talks be all about North Korea’s demands, the United States announced some of its own.

The U.S. will ask North Korea for evidence that it is serious about dismantling its nuclear weapons program, including shutting down a reactor in Yongbyon and admitting IAEA inspectors, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.
….

Rice emphasized Washington and other participants in the six-party talks will try to force the North to produce concrete evidence, including dismantling the 5 megawatt reactor in Yongybyon.

One U.S. official at the negotiations said, “The dismantling should begin with a facility like North Korea’s 5-megawatt reactor, which is continuing to produce nuclear fuel, or its plutonium reprocessing center, where spent reactor fuel can be turned into material for weapons.

By now, I suspect we know that the North Koreans will never go for that, but it has great cosmetic value that the North Koreans will certainly refuse. But if we ever expect real progress — by changing the regime’s behavior or its DNA — we will have to keep up the pressure in the meantime.

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8 Responses

  1. I think this talk of Kim’s was typical Korean tit-for-tat: he got publically and officially called out for saying the US was a war-mongering nation, so he decided to call out the US ambassador.

    I am starting to at least admire President Roh for the consistency of his policy and nomination decisions.

  2. Well, I mixed up Song and Kim, I now see, but I still think it is the common tit-for-tat with the South Korean government responding to the US State Department’s rebuke of one of its own. It was the same when the report came to the US congress on trafficing in women – it was from that period that the SK media and government began reporting about the sex slavery at clubs for GIs and USFK’s causing it.

  3. Espionage scandal roiling the Uri government, ongoing nuke tests, ongoing American redeployments, a Korean at the helm of the UN, FTA talks entering the really important stage and now the 6 way talks are on again. Does anyone think the URI government can manage these broad challenges without screwing up often and for the duration?

  4. Haven’t we already reached the point where NOBODY CARES what the South Korean government says, and perhaps soon nobody will treat North and South Korea as separate entities, at least on sensitive issues?

  5. I think the media in Korea and some offical pundits had it correct: the fact China, the US, and NK got together to get the announcement of the return of 6 Party Talks without SK in the mix speaks volumes for how far out of the loop South Korea has placed itself.

    And it really is Roh and crew’s fault:

    the pissed all over the two nations with whom they had some pull – the US and Japan. They made the conscious choice to work against the US and by extension Japan.

    That would have been OK if they had someone else to help pull the weight – but China needs the US and Japan more than it needs South Korea. It was always going to be the case that China would go along wtih South Korea as long as China felt it was worthwhile – but South Korea would have no pull to keep China by its side if China decided to move in a different direction.

    And most humiliating of all ——- even North Korea gave the South major nut buster kicks to the groin whenever it felt like it. They really treated the South like some kind of whore – who they took from them tossed out like trash.

    And now SK sits alone basically waiting for someone to include them in again.

  6. Will ROK chase the espionage leads to ground? If they don’t then the NORKS are running policy in the ROK. As it is, its hard to find daylight between the two. China, the US and Japan know that whatever the Norks agree too, well the ROK will salute too. So why even insult the Norks by bringing the ROK into the wrangling? Regardless of this stuff, the lineup will always be Japan & USA negotiating with China & the Norks. Russia and ROK will go with the flow.