How many ways can a news service describe Kim Jong Il as a nutjob without actually saying it or, in fact, referring to it?
The negotiation that yielded Tuesday’s landmark agreement for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs now gives way to a more arduous phase: making sure the communist country keeps its promises. Secretive, belligerent and with a reputation for skirting past deals, North Korea makes a rough prospect for arms control inspectors, experts said. It allegedly set up a secret nuclear weapons program, even as it shut down a different program a decade ago and put it under U.N. inspection.
Translation: We can’t trust Kim Jong Il, because he’s an effing nutjob.
As the United States, China and other regional partners look to enforce their hard won agreement, getting past North Korea’s usual intransigence is critical.
Translation: We don’t think the deal will stick, because Kim Jong Il is an effing nutjob.
Ultimately there is the question of whether Kim Jong Il, dictator of an impoverished and politically isolated country, intends to relinquish his nuclear weapons.
Translation: Kim Jong Il is an effing nutjob.
“South Africa was a model,” Liu said. “Without that kind of cooperation it’s extremely tough. If you say ‘we think you have more fuel,’ they won’t acknowledge it, and if you think you’ve got it all, they’ll keep any remaining materials for later.”
Translation: The people running South Africa weren’t effing nutjobs like Kim Jong Il.
You see, reading the news can be very educational if you understand the subtext.
My theory on this deal is that Kim Jong Il doesn’t know about it, and will never know about it. His top Generals and aides are keeping him in the dark. He’ll occasionally tour one of his nuclear plants- how’s he going to know if it’s working or not? Maybe they’ll show him “footage” of a successful nuclear test.
Meanwhile about a third to half of the fuel oil gets sold on the black market and winds up in dodgy bank accounts in Malaysia and Switzerland.
I think Kim knows all about it, and intends to violate this agrement just like the last one. After all, look at all the people who blamed Bush for pointing out that the emperor had no clothes on, and not Kim for violating the agreements he made. Kim must figure he can get away with anything. He and Daddy got away with murder in the past, what’s a trifle of lying bad faith by comparison?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne, er the State Department, is determined on appeasement. That will make them look good to their friends in Europe, no matter the damage it does to the security of the USA and its allies.
When L’il Kim and his consiglieri realize their country is collapsing economically they will start a war to steal the wealth of South Korea in order to tide them over a few years more. There is no safety for anyone, including the people of North Korea, unless this vicious regime of lunatics is overthrown before they start such a war, and before they have nukes to use in it.