I don't want to be someone who refuses to take yes for an answer but I'm not ready to celebrate based on this news quite yet:
North Korea agreed Monday to stop building nuclear weapons and allow international inspections in exchange for energy aid, economic cooperation and security assurances, a breakthrough that marked a first step toward disarmament after two years of six-nation talks.
And I don't want to make the argument that since the agreement seems to be to the liking of North Korea it automatically means we must be unhappy with it.
But.
1. When North Korea says they will stop building nuclear weapons does that imply they get to keep what they've built already?
2. Will the international inspections be only by those loyal international civil servants who didn't spot the post-1994 round of cheating that brought us to this point? Really, can any inspections that we would trust be acceptable to Pyongyang and could any inspections acceptable to the North be trustworthy?
3. Will the energy aid be just another means to round out their nuclear knowledge?
4. Is economic cooperation just another name for bribing North Korea? It isn't really cooperation if the cooperation consists of us handing money to the North and the North does not drop it because of lack of coordination.
5. How is it possible for North Korea to accept any security guarantees? Won't they just think it is a ruse on our part to lull them? Just what are we supposed to do to confirm that we aren't going to nuke them or invade them?
I'm not nearly ready to call it a breakthrough just because the talks didn't end in the usual blather about seas of fire and what North Korea will do to us if we don't agree to pay their price.
And I admit, I'd be much more comfortable with the North just imploding. Even a North Korea without nukes is a gulag-state the likes we haven't seen since the actual Soviet gulags.
I'm a realist enought to accept an actual deal that ends the nuclear threat to us while being an idealist enough to feel guilty about propping up such a hideous regime to gain our security.
But I'm also unconvinced we can get the former at the price of the latter. Will we get the worst of both worlds? That would certainly be a breathrough all right--for the Pillsbury Nuke Boy.
