Word: ils
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...biggest crisis of his presidency, the kind of crisis, in fact, that he so far has shown little aptitude for handling well. After 18 months of Clinton's vacillation and weakness toward Bosnia, Haiti and Somalia, Americans and their allies have sufficient reason to be concerned. Though Kim Il Sung has not explicitly said he would respond to sanctions by invading South Korea, it is a chilling fact that he did invade once before. For his part, Clinton has vowed that North Korea cannot be allowed to acquire an atomic arsenal. A nuclear-armed Pyongyang could not only frighten Japan...
...necessary. If the North's nuclear program is not stopped, declared Eagleburger, there will be no hope of controlling the spread of nuclear weapons in the world, and "it ought to scare the pants off everybody." Said McCain: "The only thing that convinces people like Kim Il Sung is the threat of force and extinction, and that has to be implicit in the enactment of sanctions...
After all these months, the West has little idea what Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il, the designated successor, are up to. Are they bent on extorting the best combination of diplomatic and economic benefits for a pledge of good behavior, or are they simply determined to build an atomic arsenal? Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, argues, "The North Koreans want a face-saving way out of the corner into which they have painted themselves." He thinks the U.S. ought to specify exactly what benefits the North will reap if it gives...
...going to bargain away." The diplomatic fog, he thinks, has all been cover for a determined bomb program. Norman Levin, a senior analyst at the Rand Corp., believes North Korea is bargaining, but not about economic aid or diplomatic recognition. The issue is securing the succession of Kim Jong Il, who does not have the popular following or revolutionary credentials of his father. But, says Levin, if the younger Kim "outsmarts the Americans and keeps the nukes, it would be a great victory for his legitimacy...
Perhaps the best-informed analysis comes from a Western diplomat who recently visited Pyongyang and talked with senior government officials including members of the Kim family. This diplomat describes the North Korean attitude as a siege mentality, desperate to maintain itself, fearful of attack. He does not think Kim Il Sung is looking for an economic payoff or playing a self-aggrandizing game of brinkmanship. Rather he is obsessed with assuring the survival not just of the regime but also of the very country he created. The diplomat compares Kim's quest for nuclear power with French President Charles...