The other shoe drops
Earlier, I had written
here about how North Korea finally signed an agreement to stop production of Nuclear Weapons.
Well, it seems that Kim had his fingers crossed and there is now a "request" on the table. From
Voice of America:
North Korea Demands Civilian Nuclear Reactor
North Korea has thrown a major obstacle in front of an agreement it joined just one day earlier, by demanding the United States provide it with a civilian nuclear reactor before Pyongyang makes any moves toward disarmament.
A North Korean broadcaster reads a Foreign Ministry statement demanding the United States provide it with a light water nuclear reactor, before Pyongyang will return to the global Non-Proliferation Treaty, or readmit international nuclear inspectors.
Just a day earlier, North Korea had joined Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States in a joint statement of principles, which committed Pyongyang to dismantling its nuclear weapons and programs.
Just wonderful -- also, don't forget that they had pledged to the United Nations that they were stopping work on their reprocessing facilities and they started up again secretly. Time will tell...
It was great that Bush had the foresight to pressure China and Japan into joining in on the negotiations -- North Korea initially wanted to just negotiate with the UN and the US and China didn't want anything to do with the process. It was pointed out to China that an unstable neighbor without Nukes is a lot better than one with.
Posted by DaveH at September 20, 2005 9:33 AM