The North Korean Distraction
Our man JB got a lot of coverage yesterday as U.N. ambassadors spoke out against North Korea's missile launch. Don't be fooled by the title of this post: I think North Korea is a major diplomatic and security hurdle for the United States. But where does Bolton stand?
To Bolton, this is a mere distraction from the 'real' threat of Iran and his ongoing crusade against a strong and effective U.N. I'm not expecting him to step too far out ahead of his counterparts at the U.N. or his bosses in the Administration, largely because as far as I know, they're all on the same page. My sense is that Bolton, who sees himself as an agitator for change, doesn't see either the challenge or the urgency of the North Korean situation.
Then again, I’ve underestimated Bolton’s ability to miss layups before. I guess we'll see.
The sad part is that the current situation with North Korea is due to Bolton's "efforts", at least in part.
A real diplomat and an conscious (or should that be conscientous) administration might have avoided all of this.
The scary part is that I'm not sure they wanted to avoid this confrontation.
July 6, 2006 7:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Indeed, Bolton was KNOWN for his rabid anti-North Korea remarks, to the point where North Korea specifically singled him out as someone, well, I'll let an article I found tell it:
'"The most undesirable person was named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, thus raising tension in the United Nations and international community," said Choson Sinbo, the newspaper run by a Pyongyang-aligned organization of ethnic Korean residents in Japan.
"Bolton's speaking style is so violent the North has labeled him as human scum," said the paper, considered a mouthpiece of the communist regime in Pyongyang. "He is the worst UN envoy," it declared.
Bolton took a vehement stand against North Korea when he was serving as undersecretary of state for arms control. He once described North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il as "tyrannical" and called the life in the Stalinist state a "hellish nightmare."
Bolton also blasted North Korea as "the world's foremost peddler of ballistic missile-related equipment, components, materials and technical expertise," saying the Bush administration would push for the UN Security Council to urge North Korea to drop its nuclear programs.
North Korea, in return, referred to Bolton as "human scum" and a "bloodsucker."'
As for Iran being the primary target of the Bush administration, that should be clear. NK would be, but there is no oil there and they have a military that CAN kick our ass temporarily, whereas Iran does not.
Quite frankly, however, I don't see NK as being an "urgent" matter any more than Iran is. NK isn't going to do anything to threaten the US in any real sense. Taking the pressure off the NK regime by offering bilateral negotiations would go far to help the situation. Of course, this will never happen under the Bush regime.
July 6, 2006 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
To be clear, I did not mean to understate Bolton's history of antagonizing North Korea at the expense of U.S. foreign policy goals. The point of my post, simply, is that at the moment, Bolton would rather lash out at Iran or the United Nations.
July 7, 2006 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Scott: As a blogger, not a commenter, you are allowed by the software to edit your post ex post. Obviously this should not be used, on the model of Big Brother and the Bush White House, to disappear the inconvenient past, but it's quite OK to add new material and clarifications clearly identified as updates.
I think it's also quite OK to correct mistakes of fact or attribution using annotated strikeouts (not deletions). Nobody will object if you correct typos and broken links without annotations.
July 11, 2006 8:31 AM | Reply | Permalink