By Bal(t)imoron, 5 months and 12 days ago

An Optimistic View on Bush and North Korean Nukes

John Isaacs at Right Web (via Nukes of Hazard's «John Isaacs: Hand-Wringing over Success in North Korea») offers an account of the conservative opposition to the Bush administration's moderate turn on DPRK policy in 2006.

To be sure, Bush’s June 2008 North Korea declaration left many ambiguities about the country’s nuclear program. First and foremost, it remains uncertain how many nuclear weapons Pyongyang actually produced, and no timetable has been set for North Korea to destroy its nuclear weapons. Moreover, there are many questions about the extent of Pyongyang’s possible nuclear proliferation to other countries (such as Syria), about whether it has enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, and about whether North Korea’s plutonium declaration is complete.

But the six countries involved in the negotiations are continuing to make progress, even if it is agonizingly slow. On July 13, China announced in a joint communiqué that the countries had agreed on a blueprint for verifying North Korea’s nuclear declaration and its disarmament pledges.11 Under the latest agreement, international inspectors will visit North Korean nuclear facilities, review documents, and interview personnel at the plants. The International Atomic Energy Agency will participate in the verification process.

The negotiations and bargaining will continue, slowly, with many twists in the road. Conservatives will pour more withering scorn on the Bush administration’s reversal, but undeniable progress is finally being made.

I doubt conservatives see it that way.

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