North Korea "had the right to develop these weapons if they felt threatened," not that it had been.
Rascal,
No, I'll go with our Korean-language note-takers on this one. Lots of people were surprised that NK admitted they had a nuclear weapons program, and it seems that NK is surprised they did too.
My guess is that Kelly dropped some conclusive photographs / documents on the table, and NK was so startled to be directly confronted this way that they blurted out an admission, and later regretted it.
Direct confrontation is not the Asian way, and hence their "bristling" at his "arrogant attitude" later.
Truth-telling is not the commie way. During the cold war the Russians daily wrote the most preposterous whoppers in their paper Pravda ("Truth" - who says the commies don't have a sense of humor.)
BTW, I don't mean to be overly critical of the "Korean mind" in general - just saying they're hardheads. They're also bright, industrious, entrepreneurial...
A friend who spent time teaching English in Asia found the Koreans much more simpatico than the Japanese, who divide humanity into two groups, one of which is the Japanese.
Doc
p.s. The WSJ editorial board will keep a sharp eye out for liberals on the news side, which is pretty independent IMO |
