From Keith Olbermann’s newsletter:
“North Korea called Vice President Dick Cheney a ‘bloodthirsty beast’ and said Thursday his recent remarks labeling ruler Kim Jong Il irresponsible are another reason for it to stay away from six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.” (MSNBC) … Below, Fareed Zakaria on the Bush administration’s conflicting No. Korea policies:
From the transcript of Fareed Zakaria’s PBS show #9 last Friday:
IN PERSPECTIVE
Fareed Zakaria: Does the US Government really care if North Korea goes nuclear? It doesn’t look like it to many in East Asia, where I’ve been for the past week.
Many observers there think that Washington has not one, but two policies; first it wants North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program; second it wants to topple Kim Jong-Il’s regime. The trouble is the two policies work against each other. If you tell somebody you want to destroy him, he’s got every incentive to keep his nuclear weapons to protect himself. If the US wants to succeed, it will have to decide what its primary goal on North Korea is–policy change or regime change.
President Bush is correct that the government in Pyongyang is an evil tyranny. But Kim Jong-Il’s isolated, backward regime is destined to fall. An American diplomat talking to it won’t change that, but some construction diplomacy that helps eliminates it nukes might save the rest of the world some hair-raising years of danger in the meanwhile.
Foreign Exchange With Fareed Zakaria is a great half-hour show on PBS. Seattle’s KCTS station carries it at 9:30 PM on Friday nights, right after NOW. You can also watch videos of past shows or read the transcripts at Fareed’s site.
About Zakaria: “Editor of Newsweek International since 2001, Dr. Zakaria oversees Newsweek’s eight editions throughout Asia, Latin America, Europe, Australia and the Middle East.”
