North Korean Nukes: Did Paul Wolfowitz Prevent The De Nuking of NK In The 80's?

It seems that the Neocons had an impact even in the early years of the Reagan Adminsitration. There was an attempt to try to negotiate an end tot he North Korean nuclear program in the 80's. However, as the reference article puts forth it was scuttled through a determined effort by paul Wolfowitz. One has to wonder if NK would be the threat it is today if Wolfowitz's advice was ignored. Perhaps we would not have the problem with Kim that we have today. It even accuses Him of editing out comments by the Chinese Premier Peng, that offered to set up the conference. They confirmed this directly with the Chinese delegation, and Wolfowitz angerly denied doing it.

An excerpt from an interview with Charles W. Freeman, a long-time State Department China hand who was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing during the Reagan years, centers on Freeman's recollections about a still-born step toward opening direct talks with North Korea that might have emerged from a surprising Chinese offer during the first Reagan administration to broker such discussions. This initiative was effectively killed, according to Freeman, by the determined opposition of Paul Wolfowitz, who was then Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Freeman speculates that Wolfowitz's hostility to the initiative was rooted in part in the latter's ideological suspicion of any Chinese initiative and his concerns over adverse reactions from the Republican right-wing to such talks (see pp. 430-431 of the excerpt). Wolfowitz's reputed role as the intellectual driving-force behind the hard-line positions taken by the Defense Department on Iraq, North Korea and other members of the "Axis of Evil" suggests that long-standing debates continue to be waged in the current administration.

www.gwu.edu...

[edit on 19-9-2004 by FredT]

[edit on 19-9-2004 by FredT]

[edit on 19-9-2004 by FredT]

I posted this a while back and it did not seem to generate any interest. Given the increase in tensions with North Korea and the recent alarm over mysterious blasts, I thought I would bump it up and see if people would like to take another look at it. It is very interesting to see the "Neocon Jr's" were still playing the same game as they do now even before the term became vogue.

Very interesting, what I don't get is why US seem not to be in the least interested in NK, before and even now that they are a threat they are not interested.

Text Posted by: Valhall
On: Fri September, 17 2004 @ 04:42 GMT
1. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, sat on the board of ABB Combustion Engineering from 1990 through 2000. During seven of these ten years, ABB aggressively sought to secure a contract with North Korea to build nuclear reactors. During this same period of time, in a blatant conflict of interest, Donald Rumsfeld headed the Rumsfeld Commission which looked into the growing ballistic missile threat.

It is something we are missing here, or the goverment know something that we don't?

Why in the world US saw necessary to encourage the building of nuclear power in NK?

What is going on I don�t get it.

You take a nation like NK and tell that they are �bad� but under the table you are helping them to aquired the power that they don�t need because they are �bad�

Why the goverment is so against to have Iran becoming a nuclear power but it help NK become one?

Marg, this is a common democratic way of doing things. This occured under the Clinton administration all the time. Kerry has propsed the same thing for Iran, by giving them the nuclear rods they need for energy. It's sorta like a bribe, you don't do this and we will do this for you.

Yes I am aware that it was under clinton that they got their reactors, but this started during Reagan administration and something else what in the world is Rumsfeld doing during this time during clinton he was involve up to his neck in all these.

I am not a big Rumsfeld fan. You also have to remember that it was Regan who did the Iran Contra deal. Unfortunately, we both sides of the political spectrum have done wrong things.

Its interesting and seems relevant with Wolfowitz being nominated to head the World Bank as well as the ongoing nuclear standoff with North Korea