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Friday, September 16, 2005

Perplexing

From the North Korean point of view, the talks that are going on make no sense at all. The North Koreans don't understand why the goodies aren't rolling in:

"If the United States continues to assert that it cannot give us a light-water reactor that will be the barometer for trust, for us, we cannot stop our way of peaceful nuclear activities for one moment," North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong told reporters.

Consider the history of talks. When the North Koreans want cash, the West has been eager to provide the goodies if the North Koreans rattle their sabers a bit. I mean, it has worked in the past. So when the North Koreans yelled "boo!" a couple years ago, things started out fine when they heard some Americans calling for immediate talks (they meant ship goodies, as Pyongyang understood the game). Sadly for the Pillsbury Nuke Boy, America has been willing to talk--or not, if the North Koreans walk away in a snit. And after all this time, we still don't open the spigot for cash to flow north.

This must be terribly confusing for Pyongyang to deal with.

Let them die.