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North Korea Sticks to Script But Bad Actor;

Performances still enjoyed by children

August 30, 2003

Is it any surprise this week that North Korea back peddled on what really only the naïve among us thought would be a breakthrough in talks?

The answer I suppose, points to the same people who believe that China is our ally in this matter. What does one make of China's repeated claim it wants nuclear weapons off the Korean peninsula during the same time in which it was signing and solidifying strategic ties to Pyongyang and Moscow.

In 1999 during the anniversary of Chinese involvement in the Korean War Chinese PLA chief of general staff Fu Quanyou described relations with North Korea as “close as lips and teeth” – a traditional phrase which dates back many decades of close ties between the two communist countries. Indeed during that same time, WorldNet Daily quoted Stratfor.com analysts as revealing that China would likely want to use North Korea as “an important tool in dealing with the United States, Japan and South Korea.” 

At the same time, we hear from North Korean defectors such as Park Gap Dong, who claims we must strike the north first. Park has had numerous meetings with high-level military officials in Japan and South Korea, however with many defectors, it would be my hope his are but supplements to proper on-going intelligence gathering by the two countries. Intelligence gathering which has been stepped up in recent years as China, Russia and North Korea have increased exercises, R&D and joint cloak-and-dagger activity in the region that began in large part with the signing of a pact of strategic cooperation between the three countries and meetings between Putin and Kim Jong Il in Vladivostok, a city in eastern Russia just north of the North Korean border where a variety of topics were discussed.

At present, Russia and China have continued to sell advanced weapons systems to Kim Jong Il's regime, despite U.S. concerns. U.S. Strategy.com reported in July that China was working with North Korea to bolster Iran's nuclear arms program by selling arms and providing advisors to the country. I would imagine it is fairly safe to say the Chinese and North Koreans would not be selling nuclear technology to anyone they thought would use it against them, so that means those weapons are most likely to be pointed in a direction North Korea approves of. Possibly where China has it's missiles aimed too: The U.S. and her interests.

So, what does Blogbat think the strategic value of Iran is that the two communist countries would risk the image of being on opposite sides of the Nukes-in-Korea issue they have worked so hard to maintain? It was clear several years ago to me and seems only to be borne out every year since, as our march to the east continues: It is the drawing of U.S. forces into an ever-deepening eastward-bound conflict that will eventually, by hopes of the communist countries, land us at the doorstep of the same, tired and over-stretched and at the opposite end of the arm of political wrangling in Washington. That and hopefully with the vast majority of the world turned against us. The conflicts have been carefully chosen, coupled with events stateside to effectively run us into the ground and make us a global afterthought. The Chinese even laid this out quite candidly in 2000 and 2001 with comments made by their defense minister stating that “war with the U.S. is inevitable” and that China would be ready for war with the U.S. by around 2005. In 2001 we went into Afghanistan. 2003, Iraq. In 2001, I predicted we would be in Iraq by this year, but I was unsure of the details until the events of September 11. Unfortunately, we do need to move east and keep fighting, that is really our forced move in this match. At the same time it seems clear that the manner in which we handle this will depend greatly on our resolve, our preparation and of course, our elections. Next year will be pivotal in deciding the tenor of the ongoing conflict to clean up the international mess we have let go for so long which now threatens to strangle us. More so than even in former years, this election, rather than deciding merely which party's social policies are enacted, may well decide an even greater outcome.    - by Blogbat

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