The Devil Made North Korea Do It

Why does North Korea continue to work to build up a nuclear arsenal?

It's because North Korea gets no respect from Washington.

This might sound like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, or Mad Dr. Dean came up with that explanation.

Actually, it's Kim Jong Il's regime that is using that line. I know it's confusing. The Democrats do tend to tout the North Korean party line occasionally.

AP reports:

N. Korea Blames U.S. for Nuke Program

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday it would not need nuclear weapons if the United States treated it like a friend, as the isolated nation joined South Korea for high-level reconciliation talks.

The bilateral meeting was shadowed by the international standoff over the North's nuclear ambitions.

"If the United States treats the North in a friendly manner, we will possess not one nuclear weapon," the North Korean delegation said, according to Kim Chun-shick, spokesman for the South Koreans.

The statement echoed a pledge by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who met Friday with visiting South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and said Pyongyang could return to international nuclear disarmament talks as soon as next month if it gets appropriate respect from Washington.

Chung, head of Seoul's delegation, on Wednesday urged the North to return to nuclear talks in July, his ministry said.

"The North Korean nuclear issue is a matter between the two Koreas as well as an international one," Kim Chun-shick quoted Chung as saying.

The North has stayed away from six-party talks aimed at persuading it to disarm since June 2004, citing "hostile" U.S. policies. It declared in February that it had nuclear weapons and has insisted that the nuclear standoff can only be discussed with the United States. The North's claim has not been verified independently.

Two U.S. experts on Korea wrote in The Washington Post on Wednesday that they delivered a message from the North Korean leader to President Bush in November 2002.

The written message to Bush said the United States and North Korea "should be able to resolve the nuclear issue in compliance with the demands of the new century," according to the two messengers — Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, and Don Oberdorfer, a Korea expert at the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

"If the United States makes a bold decision, we will respond accordingly," Kim said in the message, according to Gregg and Oberdorfer.

Kim's offer was conditioned on U.S. recognition of North Korea's sovereignty and assurances of nonaggression, the two wrote in an opinion piece.

But the administration spurned engagement with Kim. In response, the authors said, Kim within weeks expelled inspectors from the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, withdrew from the Nonproliferation Treaty and reopened plutonium facilities shut down since 1994 under an agreement with the Clinton administration.

...Gregg and Oberdorfer said they see a new opportunity for a breakthrough in Kim's conciliatory comments last week in which he raised the possibility of reversing his nuclear program and rejoining the treaty. They urged Bush to follow up on Kim's overture by communicating directly with him.

According to this story from the Associated Press, it sounds like Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, and Don Oberdorfer, a Korea expert at the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, are placing blame for North Korea's nukes on the Bush administration.

They say that Kim Jong Il tried to be nice, but Bush was mean. The President didn't give North Korea appropriate respect, so North Korea had to develop nuclear weapons.

These "experts" are clearly apologists for the Clinton administration. They are trying to clean up the stains Bill left so Hillary won't have to answer for the North Korean mess when she officially hits the campaign trail.

If the U.S. treats North Korea in a "friendly manner," the country will disarm?

Only foreign policy disaster Democrats like Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright would believe that.

North Korea is a threat today because they did.