Asia News Digest
North Korea Will Consider U.S. Security Offer
North Korea said Oct. 25 that it would consider President Bush's offer of multi-lateral, written security assurances in return for dismantling of its nuclear weapons programs. Pyongyang had earlier dismissed Bush's offer as laughable and not worth considering. During the Bangkok APEC Summit of Asia-Pacific leaders last week, Bush proposed that the United States, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and China offer written assurances that the North would not be attacked, if it promises to dismantle its nuclear program. "We are ready to consider Bush's remarks on the written assurances of nonaggression if they are based on the intention to coexist with the (North)," the statement said.
Cheney, Pentagon Named as Saboteurs of Korea Peace Effort
The New York Times Oct. 20 attacked Vice President Dick Cheney and his Pentagon allies as the source of the North Korea problem. "There are a lot of people in the administration who think that the North is bound and determined to plow ahead with its nukes, no matter what," the Times quoted a senior official as saying. They noted that this official "has joined the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office in opposing virtually any meaningful negotiation with North Korea."
The Times further quoted the official as saying that if North Korea does not now cooperate, and take up Bush's new offer, the neo-cons will have a field day. "We could demonstrate to the world that it's time to take more decisive action, from cutting off their oil, to seizing their ships, to having unpleasant things happen to their suspected sites," the official said.
A Korean official told EIR that the new proposal from the U.S. for a multi-national security guarantee for North Korea is serious, and reflects more sensible voices in the Administration on Korea policy. "But on the other hand," the official said, "the neo-con voice is still very strong, saying that 'the North is building nuclear weapons, and no treaty will stop them.' They are just hoping this complex six-nation negotiation falls apart, so they can move for their next agenda of confrontation against Pyongyang, as the New York Times said."
Neo-con Calls for Economic Strangulation of North Korea
Max (Jack) Boot, writing an op-ed in the Oct. 22 USA Today, laments that President Bush has backed off the "axis of evil" theme, while touring Asia this week, and is instead offering North Korea a multilateral security guarantee, prompting Boot to demand: "What's going on?" Is Bush vacillating, he wonders, between the hard-liners and the "accomodationists"? Maybe he is: so Boot is here to take that first goose-step toward what he calls "the third way," i.e., "peaceful regime change" through economic strangulation of North Korea: "The goals of such a campaign are easy to articulate but hard to accomplish: Cut off food aid to North Korea from various nations; halt fuel supplies from China and investment from South Korean firms" in order to topple Kim Jong Il. "This strategy will require the active cooperation of other countries, especially China and South Korea," in order to totally isolate what Boot calls "one of the poorest nations on Earth."
Unable to accept that diplomacy might prevail, Olin Fellow Boot concludes Bush is shamming negotiations in order to justify a hardline approach later: "By putting forth a good-faith diplomatic effort, he makes it more likely that North Korea's neighbors will be willing to get tough if negotiations collapse." But there's a grave risk that peace might actually occur: "But there's also a danger Bush will be trapped by his own rhetoric into striking a deal with North Korea."
"These fools never learn, said Lyndon LaRouche, upon hearing about the Max Boot op-ed on North Korea and similar ravings. "I thought I explained to these idiots how stupid Harry Truman got himself into a war in Korea. This is the same damned thing."
Putin Promotes Trans-Siberian Railroad in APEC Speech
In his speech to the opening plenary session of the APEC summit in Bangkok, Thailand Oct. 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, among other things: "One of the main spheres of our economic activity in the Asia and Pacific Region is transport and energy. At previous meetings within the framework of the Business Summit, I have already talked about several infrastructure projects, including possibilities for the Trans-Siberian Railway and its attractiveness for investors. So far, Russia has invested over $1 billion in modernizing and developing this system. I won't repeat myself today, I only want to point out that even Spain, at the very west of the European continent, already actively uses this route to deliver cargo to countries of the far East. We expect that our partners in other countries will actively make use of these possibilities."
Putin on Eurasian Stability
In his speech at the official reception at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, the Thai capital, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Oct. 22 that, "the stable and secure space from Europe to the Pacific Ocean is not only one of the conditions for internal achievements but [also] a strategic factor for the whole planet."
Putin added that Russia and his host Thailand belonged to the same "vast Asia-Pacific region, the geopolitical importance and economic influence of which are growing."
Wiesenthal Center Calls for Boycott of Malaysia
In an ugly irony, Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center, which is financed by Herr Gruppenführer Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Gov.-elect of California, and his criminal backers, called for a "boycott of tourism and investment" in Malaysia, on Oct. 23. "Dr. Mahathir's serial anti-Semitism has now moved the most virulent anti-Semitic stereotypes into the mainstream of the body-politic of the Islamic and Asian communities," he said. Apparently Cooper, who has supported the Schwarzenegger fascist campaign, is yet another Mahathir-hater who rejects Mahathir's call for an end to terrorism, which so neatly fits their purposes.
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