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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: j-at-home who wrote (250952)	7/18/2003 7:14:05 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Let's hope Blair addresses that little bugaboo. Meanwhile, Wolfowitz is surprising everyone in Baghdad today. ************************************************************************ No Time to Lose on North Korea If North Korea is not bluffing, it may have already produced enough plutonium to be within striking distance of building six new nuclear bombs. Short of a war no one wants, the only way to prevent that development is through a diplomatic agreement. That is why China's urgent efforts to revive the three-way talks that have been suspended since April are crucially important. The Bush administration should embrace Beijing's welcome intercession and be ready to explore a comprehensive deal that would end North Korea's nuclear ambitions in exchange for international aid and security guarantees. Nearly three precious months have been lost since the initial discussions by American, North Korean and Chinese representatives in Beijing broke up with no resumption scheduled. North Korea soured the atmosphere of the talks with vituperative criticism of American policies. The price it demanded for abandoning its nuclear weapons programs was extravagant and unrealistic. But American officials also recognized that in its own peculiar way, the North was signaling its continued openness to a negotiated settlement that would verifiably end its nuclear weapons activity. Subsequent unofficial contacts, including a May visit to Pyongyang by Representative Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican, confirmed this. What is needed now is for Washington to make a serious counterproposal. Each day increases the risk that North Korea will succeed in producing new nuclear weapons, and perhaps even testing one of them to prove its success. Those steps would only increase the dangers and complicate the chances for a peaceful resolution. Washington cannot resign itself to a North Korea free to threaten its neighbors with nuclear destruction and sell plutonium to rogue states and terrorists. Nor can it consider military action, which could ignite a new war on the Korean peninsula and possibly lead to a North Korean nuclear attack on Japan. Diplomacy is the only acceptable alternative, and time may be running short. Earlier this year, the White House, wanting no distractions from its drive to oust Saddam Hussein, deliberately played down the urgency of the North Korean threat. Internal policy divisions within the administration led to further delays. While diplomacy has remained suspended, Washington is preparing plans for pressuring North Korea through economic sanctions and seizures of suspicious North Korean cargos at sea. Despite the delays, a diplomatic solution still seems within reach. Experts who know North Korea say that its rulers' paramount concern is their own survival in power. The North Korean leadership worries obsessively about an American military attack and is constantly scrambling for additional revenue to sustain its country's imploding economy and finance its armed forces and advanced weapons programs. The United States' challenge is to convince North Korea's leaders that these goals can be achieved only by permanently and verifiably ending the production and export of unconventional weapons. That will require not just threats and not just diplomacy, but a sophisticated combination of both. Mr. Bush understandably dislikes the idea of rewarding North Korea for giving up its nuclear program. Diplomacy isn't always pretty. But if it can prevent a nuclear North Korea without a catastrophic war, Washington must give it every chance. nytimes.com