posted on Feb, 11 2005 @ 08:27 AM
After North Korea announced they have nuclear weapons, they now DEMAND that the US participate in bilateral talks seeking massive aid, diplomatic
recognition, an end to economic sanctions, and a nonaggression treaty with the United States. Bush is a big proponant of the six nation talks which
include China but North Korea now says they are only interested in direct talks with the United States.
story.news.yahoo.com
In the announcement — its first public disclosure that it has the weapons — North Korea said its arsenal is a deterrent against a U.S. invasion,
and it does not intend to join six-nation disarmament talks anytime soon. The weapons claim could not be independently verified.
"We will return to the six-nation talks when we see a reason to do so and the conditions are ripe," Han told Seoul's Hankyoreh newspaper in an
interview published Friday. "If the United States moves to have direct dialogue with us, we can take that as a signal that the United States is
changing its hostile policy toward us."
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
South Korea is urging the U.S. to not be too hasty before jumping through North Korea's hoops. Apparently Pyongyang has done this kind of DEMAND
tactics before.
The U.S. doesn't need to be pushed around, but the U.S. needs to take this threat very seriously. I hope it will be addressed diplomatically rather
than aggressively. Though GWB has been known to use the "my gun barrel is bigger than yours" tactic in the past rather than choose the the calmer,
more peaceful path.