Word: pyongyang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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. But alien as this "diplomatic" framework may seem to tender Western sensibilities, the brute fact is that it has generated results for North Korea for decades...
...what we've witnessed in the past year or so is a new pattern: successive top-level edicts that bolster the clout of Pyongyang's overseas adversaries?particularly Rumsfeldian warriors who dream of imposing "regime change" on North Korea...
...Then, of course, there's the current North Korean nuclear drama?with the latest twist unfolding in Beijing just last month. After months of equivocation, China, North Korea's last remaining quasi-ally, consented to join the U.S. in talks with North Korea about Pyongyang's nuclear violations. Beijing graciously agreed to host the meetings and committed Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the deliberations. The U.S. sent Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly. And the North Koreans? They sent a worker bee: Li Gun, deputy director general of their Foreign Ministry's American Affairs Bureau. Officials of that rank...
...what of the reaction of the South Korean government, the self-styled battered spouse and co-enabler in the North Korean nuclear drama? Seoul still seems to be in, well, denial. South Korean diplomats are letting it be known that there were "promising elements" in the package Pyongyang "left on the table" in Beijing. (Memo to South Korea: don't try to open that promising package when your loved ones are in the room...
...take even more in the way of hostile pyrotechnics from Pyongyang to convince Seoul to join the U.S. Defense Department's North Korean-regime-change club. But don't put it past Kim. Nobody has a greater knack for alienating friends and enemies alike...