China Says U.S. Impeded North Korea Arms Talks

NY Times:

BEIJING, May 12 - A senior Chinese diplomat on Thursday accused the Bush administration of undermining efforts to revive negotiations with the North Korean government and said there was "no solid evidence" that North Korea was preparing to test a nuclear weapon.

The comments by Yang Xiyu, a senior Foreign Ministry official and China's top official on the North Korean nuclear problem, were noteworthy because the Chinese authorities very rarely speak to journalists about the issue. The comments reflect growing frustration in Beijing with the Bush administration.

Even as the White House presses China to find a solution to the nuclear issue, Chinese officials say, it has hurled insults at North Korea and given its leaders excuses to stay away from the bargaining table.

The Beijing government is determined to head off a looming confrontation between the United States and North Korea, which it fears could prompt a regional nuclear arms race and shatter the stability that has underpinned China's own economic rise.

At first I couldn’t imagine why President Bush was bungling the talks with North Korea and why in heaven’s name he would antagonize an already unstable and paranoid Kim Jung Il; why had the nuclear arsenal of North Korea increased under his administration after Clinton had successfully managed to diplomatically deter N. Korean nuclear proliferation? Regime Change.

"It is true that we do not yet have tangible achievements" in ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Mr. Yang said in an interview. "But a basic reason for the unsuccessful effort lies in the lack of cooperation from the U.S. side."

Then I remembered PNAC and what we were doing in Iraq.

(5) Readying the nondiplomatic instruments for North Korea threat reduction. Diplomacy on the North Korean nuclear front may well fail--in which case a variety of nondiplomatic alternatives must be at the ready. Paradoxically, however, preparing for the deliberate use of nonconsensual, non-diplomatic options with North Korea will actually increase the probability of a diplomatic success.

While America gears itself toward a new configuration of the military industrial complex Iraq and the Middle East are only tactical wars designed to support our strategic objective, the containment and control of Asia (see Rebuilding America’s Defenses 18-19); we are developing new bases for the multiple theatre wars spread across the globe.

The coalition of foreign-policy hawks that promoted the 2003 invasion of Iraq is pressing President George W. Bush to adopt a more coercive policy toward North Korea, despite strong opposition from China and South Korea.

It is unfortunate that President Bush didn’t spend more time in history class. If he did he would realize that he and his crew of rabid capitalist and their doctrine of total war have placed us on the road followed by the Mongols, Alexander and Caser. Not good.