Apparently, the Bush Administrations tough stance on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is a problem.
Bush administration persistence in using diplomacy to solve a nuclear weapons crisis with North Korea is coming up short as the insular regime bobs and weaves away from resuming negotiations.
Does that make anyone else think that the AP is proposing military ventures? No, wait a second.
The faltering effort is having a divisive effect on U.S. relations with South Korea and Japan, which have blamed U.S. inflexibility for North Korea’s refusal to halt its atomic weapons program.
Rose Gotemoeller, an analyst at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, tends to agree with the
criticism from South Korea and Japan."The way in which the administration has
relied on diplomacy is to take a very hard line and stick with it, and
not be willing to explore possible avenues of resolution," the former
Clinton administration official said Monday."That’s not diplomacy, that’s standing tough," she said.
This from an official from an administration that only got the NK’s to temporarily shut down their nuke program, not dismantle it, as well as ignoring the threat from Al Queda for 8 years. (Hindsight is 20/20, though). It is a very simple proposition. Shut the program down or don’t shut it down. What other avenues are there? Bribes? Excuse me, trade agreements? Funny how no one in the article actually provides anything other then criticism. No ideas, no recommendations. "A litany of complaints is not a plan."
