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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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 Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:26 am Post subject: U.S. Envoy Rejects Claims that U.S. Caused Nuke Test |
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| U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said Wednesday it was unfair that his country had been criticized in the wake of North Korea�s nuclear test. On a visit to the Grand National Party, the ambassador said according to a recent press poll, 30 percent of Korean�s believe that the North�s test was the fault of the U.S. But Vershbow insisted the U.S. did everything it could at the six-party talks on the North�s nuclear program. Party spokesman Na Kyung-won quoted Vershbow as voicing disappointment that people did not look at the entire series of events. |
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Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok told lawmakers Seoul �told the U.S. government that if North Korea conducts a nuclear test, the fate of the Korean people is at stake, and recommended that if at all possible the U.S. should hold direct talks with the North, but the U.S. refused to accommodate us.� Uri Party representatives were also ready to jump into the breach. Chun Jung-bae posted a notice on his website that read, �The Neocon-led U.S. policy on North Korea has not stopped the nuclear proliferation and is a clear failure. It is a result of ignorance of the precept that the carrot and the stick must be used together to bring about positive effects.� Rep. Jung Chung-rae said Washington had �abandoned the spirit� of a statement of principles agreed in the six-party talks last year and thus shoulders a large part of the blame.
Ruling Uri Party Chairman Kim Geun-tae said, �The final result was the North Korean nuclear test, so the Bush administration�s hostile attitude and policy of not recognizing North Korea are clearly not working.�
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http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200610/200610120025.html
And an interesting juxtaposition:
Mass weapons: Where did the North get cash?
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October 14, 2006 ㅡ Funds used by South Korea to pay for North Korean sand have been given to front companies operated by the North Korean Ministry of the People's Armed Forces with the knowledge of Seoul, a Grand National Party lawmaker claimed yesterday.
Citing data from the Korea Customs Service, Choi Kyung-hwan complained that from 2002 until June of this year, Seoul had paid Pyongyang $42 million for 11.3 million tons of sand. The lawmaker said his office has confirmed that the companies that received the payment are operated by the military bureau.
An aide to the lawmaker said yesterday that individual contacts at those companies have confirmed the lawmaker's claim.
The Unification Ministry agreed in a statement released yesterday that Mr. Choi had the numbers right. But it said the amount he cited included transportation costs, which were not paid to the North, and that only $10 million actually went there.
But it said all North Korean entities in the deal are civilian companies under the North's National Economic Cooperation Federation. The ministry added that sand does not need a separate import permit; trade is allowed under a broad commercial agreement with the North. It said imports had helped stabilize the domestic gravel and sand market.
The particulars of the dispute aside, however, a question remains about how a country said to be one of the poorest in the world could claim to have spent the huge sums of money necessary to conduct a nuclear test. Where did the money come from?
A separate analysis by the Defense Ministry estimated that North Korea has spent between $290 million and $760 million to build the infrastructure that supported the presumed test. It spent between $57 million and $170 million on building a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon that began operating in 1986. In order to extract plutonium from this reactor, Pyongyang spend an additional $20 million-$59 million to build such facilities. In addition, the cost of producing the six to eight kilograms of plutonium that experts say is necessary to produce one nuclear weapon would have cost the North $23 million to $73 million, the ministry estimates. The cost of building an underground tunnel and testing facility would add perhaps $100 million to $300 million to the cost. In 2004, Pyongyang's total government budget was $2.5 billion.
Lee Jong-seok, the unification minister, put the official financial aid given by Seoul to Pyongyang at $1.7 billion during the Kim Dae-jung administration and his successor's to date.
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http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200610/13/200610132241402709900090309031.html |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:41 am Post subject: Re: U.S. Envoy Rejects Claims that U.S. Caused Nuke Test |
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| Smee wrote: |
| the U.S. did everything it could at the six-party talks on the North�s nuclear program. |
Isn't that sort of like saying they did everything they could without getting out of the beanbag chair and pressing pause on the Playstation II? |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:42 am Post subject: Re: U.S. Envoy Rejects Claims that U.S. Caused Nuke Test |
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| RACETRAITOR wrote: |
| Smee wrote: |
| the U.S. did everything it could at the six-party talks on the North�s nuclear program. |
Isn't that sort of like saying they did everything they could without getting out of the beanbag chair and pressing pause on the Playstation II? |
Have you heard of Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial"? I understand the Bush Administration doesn't take responsiblity for this embarassing nuclear test by North Korea, but it sought a confrontational approach with Pyongyang and then invaded Iraq while Pyongyang started developing its nukes in response to the invasion of Iraq and stopping the shipments that Clinton had arranged before. Nothing was negotiated. I don't think the Administration understood how the global political scene changed. It was as if the 1990 end of the Cold War was the year 2003. Everything that has gone wrong has been received with "it's not our fault". |
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