Word: kim
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...smile campaign was in full bloom in North Korea, played out publicly with the help of CNN. A beaming and nodding Kim Il Sung was on view receiving former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on a "private visit" last week with all the ceremony and trappings appropriate to a serving head of state. More important -- since Kim knew that Carter was in touch with Washington -- they talked for six hours. Then Carter and Kim shared a hug reminiscent of the one Carter gave Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev at the SALT II signing...
Carter claimed a diplomatic breakthrough, reporting that North Korea would allow international inspectors to remain at the main nuclear installation in Yongbyon while "good-faith efforts" toward a settlement were resumed with the U.S. As the television cameras rolled, Carter told Kim the U.S. would suspend its effort to impose economic sanctions on North Korea...
...could be mistaken. The White House quickly denied it was shutting down its sanctions campaign and asked for clarifications from North Korea. The world's hopes for a peaceful settlement are certain to rise and fall in the coming weeks as the U.S. tries to discern whether Kim is ready for serious negotiations this time or simply out to diddle the West once again...
...With Kim grinning and glad-handing on CNN, it might be tempting to assume he has finally decided to trade his nuclear program for a diplomatic and economic payoff from the West. But among Korea watchers, there are still two divergent interpretations of what Kim is really up to. One group takes the view that his nuclear program is a bargaining chip, the only aspect of North Korean society that makes it interesting to the world, and thus one to be sold at the highest possible price in recognition and aid. They argue that the U.S. should make the benefits...
...other view is that Kim, an old-fashioned communist dictator, sees nuclear weapons as the ultimate insurance for the survival of his regime and / the succession of his son Kim Jong Il. If this is correct, Kim's repeated agreements to allow inspectors to work freely, and his subsequent refusals to live up to them, are part of a stalling game. His aim may be to string the West along until the end of the year, when he could have the plutonium for six or eight atom bombs -- which might be enough to deter attack or blackmail a neighbor...