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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (498625)	7/27/2009 4:30:19 PM
From: d[-_-]b	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1570889

He arrested a stupid ass professor For once you got something right!

To: tejek who wrote (498625)	7/27/2009 4:30:45 PM
From: one_less	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570889

Bad policy: Hillary practices pop psychology on Pyongyang BENNINGTON, Vermont — By suggesting that North Korea’s international behavior was that of an unruly or spoiled child, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blundered into a rhetorical minefield in dealing with the nuclear armed East Asian state. With comments more attune to morning TV breakfast shows and not serious diplomatic solutions, Hillary Clinton both needlessly insulted the Pyongyang regime but more importantly, sub-consciously underestimated the depth of the threat coming from the neo-Stalinist state. If one looks logically at a spoiled child or a teenage terror, yes then Hillary’s comments have true merit. Don’t give them attention, a pedestal, or give in to tantrums. But will the pop psychology fit for a morning chat show play in Pyongyang? Hardly! Naturally the North Koreans, having lost face, quickly returned the insult. What is less predictable remains their likely policy response on the tense divided Korean peninsula. Clinton told an ABC news program, that the U.S. played down recent North Korean missile firings over the 4th July weekend, as not to give them the “satisfaction they were looking for, which was to elevate them to center stage.” Smart move. Then, she added, “Maybe it's the mother in me, the experience I've had with small children and teenagers and people who are demanding attention: Don't give it to them.” Let’s get real. The quaintly titled Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian systems, a threat to its own starving population and a military menace to neighboring South Korea. The regime which echoes Stalin’s Soviet Union or Mao’s China still has a formidable military punch, now enhanced by its nuclear weapons. This is not a spoiled schoolyard bully but a still lethal regional threat. At the annual summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), North Korea’s nuclear program was widely condemned by regional delegates. Secretary Clinton stated clearly, “The United States and its allies and partners cannot accept a North Korea that tries to maintain nuclear weapons, to launch ballistic missiles or to proliferate nuclear materials.” Right, but what precisely are we do? Think about the consequences. She added, “There is no place to go for North Korea; they have no friends left that will protect them from the international community's efforts to move towards denuclearization.” Perhaps not formal friends, but Beijing may still hold hidden interests with its erstwhile comrade. A spate of UN Security Council resolutions has not neutralized North Korea’s nuclear or missile program, and since April (after a mild rebuke) Pyongyang pulled out of the multi-lateral Six Party Talks aims at a nuclear-free Korea. Those ongoing diplomatic negotiations importantly had all the key players to the dispute; North and South Korea, Mainland China, Japan, Russia and the United States. But let’s not forget that since her husband former President Bill Clinton signed off on the 1994 Geneva accords on North Korea’s supposed nuclear non-proliferation, the DPRK has since developed and tested a nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. The genie is long out of the bottle. So to suggest that either Kim Jong-il’s regime is “not playing by the rules,” or is somehow in the schoolyard bully category underestimates the very dangerous capacity that Pyongyang has to disrupt regional peace and security—most especially to neighboring South Korea and nearby Japan. The fact that “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il is seriously ill and likely to hand the baton of power to his son Jong-Un in the best traditions of this bizarre Marxist monarchy, underscores the point that the DPRK dictatorship is playing for the long run. Wishful thinking about either coaxing, cajoling or somehow charming the nukes from the hands the Kim Dynasty are pure fantasy. But so too is the mantra that the regime can hold power indefinitely. The point is that both through political tantrum and very focused policies, Pyongyang’s communists have been able to built and get away with an active weapons program which poses a clear and present danger to East Asia. Hillary Clinton assured ASEAN delegates, “We have made it very clear to the North Koreans that if they will agree to irreversible denuclearization, the United States as well as our partners will move forward on a package of incentives and opportunities including normalizing relations.” The offers are on the table. If North Korea is serious about negotiations, South Korea, Japan and the USA can offer incentives pending transparent and verifiable progress. But that’s probably in the post-“Dear Leader” phase. Yet using pop psychology rather than quiet but tough diplomacy towards an unpredictable nuclear armed state may offer good sound bites but bad policy. worldtribune.com