Bush to North Korea: Alas, not so “evil, ” after all
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In what the British newspaper the Telegraph describes as “a remarkable turn-around” (also known in American political shorthand as a “flip-flop”), yesterday, George W. Bush announced that the United States will no longer regard the government of North Korea’s communist dictator, big-haired Kim Jong-il, as a sponsor of terrorism. The reason for the foreign-policy U-turn: In keeping with “the terms of last year’s aid-for-bombs deal between North Korea and five other countries,” Kim’s secretive regime had “handed over a list of its nuclear facilities to China and [pledged that it] would ceremonially blow up a cooling plant at its main reactor” at Yongbyon today. It is believed that, among other information, the data North Korea turned over to the Chinese government indicate “the size of its stockpile of reprocessed plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons.” (Last month, North Korea had turned over 18,882 pages of documents related to its nuke activities to a U.S. diplomatic envoy.) Yesterday, White House press flack Dana Perino told reporters: “The United States welcomes the North Korean declaration of its nuclear programs.” Now, she added, the U.S. that action “by lifting the provisions of the Trading with the Enemy Act, as well as announcing our intent to rescind North Korea’s designation as a state sponsor of terror in 45 days.” (Telegraph)
admin @ June 28, 2008