Word: jong
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...finally figured out the reason for North Korea's bizarre behavior of late: some time last year, in a still top-secret caper, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld must have convinced North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to switch sides and sign on to the Pentagon payroll. Okay, I admit this is far fetched. But it might just explain the series of self-defeating plays Kim has made on the strategic chessboard since President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" speech. Of course, Pyongyang's approach to statecraft has always appeared a tad peculiar, its international posture unapologetically savage...
...proudly independent player, determined to mollify North Korea through economic and diplomatic engagement. But Roh's "Peace and Prosperity Policy" toward the North won't play well in the post-Iraq war White House, where hard-liners are deeply skeptical that bargaining with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will be any more fruitful than bargaining with Saddam Hussein?a suspicion confirmed late last month when talks between the U.S. and North Korea in Beijing ended acrimoniously...
...Washington hawks have repeatedly warned that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il should learn a lesson from Iraq. The latest escalations suggests he may have done so, although not the lesson that U.S. officials had in mind. Only last week, a statement from North Korea's foreign ministry noted: "The Iraqi war teaches a lesson that in order to prevent war and defend the security of a country and the sovereignty of a nation, it is necessary to have a powerful deterrent force only." And mixed signals emanating from the Bush administration may have reinforced that conviction...
...North Korean delegates to the Beijing talks were well aware of the infighting in Washington, and reportedly quizzed Kelley on the Rumsfeld memo. The diplomat assured them that the Defense Secretary's memo - which suggests a somewhat farfetched alliance with China to topple Kim Jong Il - was not U.S. government policy. But the North Koreans may not be convinced by the soothing assurances of a State Department appointee over the growls emanating from the triumphal Defense Department...
...Washington, however, North Korea appears bent on ratcheting up the confrontation. Many Korea analysts had long viewed Pyongyang's nuclear brinkmanship as part of a pattern of extortion - acting in a menacing way, and then promising good behavior in exchange for economic assistance. But many fear that Kim Jong Il may have decided that a nuclear deterrent is the only way to ward off the threat of U.S. military action to smash his regime, and that while pressure from neighbors such as China - which is North Korea's economic life-support system right now - could force Kim into agreements...