Yes, Virginia, despite United Nations sanctions forbidding any such activity, North Korea’s government is still supplying weapons hither and yon. The latest sanctions busting shipment turned up aboard a cargo plane that stopped Friday for refueling in Bangkok — you can peruse some of the details on Hot Air. Thai authorities found some 35 tons of North Korean armaments aboard the plane, including rocket-propelled grenades and surface-to-air missiles.
As usual with North Korea’s in-your-face clandestine weapons shipments, the more we hear, the more curious it all becomes. The plane was an Ilyushin-76, previously owned by a Kazakh airline, reportedly sold to a small freight carrier operating out of Georgia (the former Soviet state, not the home of Jimmy Carter’s peanut farm) — and The Wall Street Journal reports no luck in getting this outfit to answer the number it has listed in the Moscow phone book. Four Kazakhs and a Belarusian were aboard the flight, which according to Thai authorities was bound for Sri Lanka. Except Sri Lankan authorities deny any knowledge that this North Korean weapons delivery was enroute to their turf.
But you want the really incredible part? Yes, it involves the U.S. State Department, still trying to corral North Korea’s nuclear program by tossing carrots to Kim Jong Il.
While Thai authorities have been exhuming North Korean weapons from the cargo bay of this airplane, the U.S. State Department has been forging serenely ahead with plans for yet another round of nuclear talks with North Korea. Never mind that North Korea has an unbroken record of lying, cheating and subverting every deal it has made under both presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush. Never mind that North Korea’s regime has no more regard for any deal it strikes at the diplomatic bargaining table than it does for UN sanctions.
On Monday, more than a full day after this sanctions-violating shipment had hit the world news, U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth — fresh from a visit to Pyongyang – was delivering to the press this sound bite, featured on the State Department web site:
“We came away from our talks in Pyongyang encouraged by the atmosphere, which was very reasonable and businesslike, exchanges of views with candor…” etc. Bosworth is “encouraged” that North Korean officials “reiterated their view of the importance of the six party talks…” You can read it in full here.
Memo to Ambassador Bosworth: Of course the North Koreans are interested in more talks. It’s part of the nuclear shakedown racket that helps sustain the “reasonable and businesslike” regime of Kim Jong Il, while Kim builds nuclear weapons and sells arms to buyers such as Iran (which has been cultivating ties to Sri Lanka in recent years, though the end destination of the cargo seized in Bangkok is not yet clear… Iran? Pakistan? Afghanistan? Wherever these weapons were bound, the shipment was a violation of UN sanctions, and the likely buyer list is not — how to put it? — encouraging).
I guess this arms shipment that was recently discovered in Bangkok is yet another example of how “effective” UN sanctions are. After all the “Oil for Food” programs and other assorted corruption coming out of the UN, it’s amazing to me that anyone still puts their faith in this corrupt and impotent organization. The only way the North Koreans will take anyone seriously is if there is a naval blockade of that country. A total blockade, with nothing going in or coming out. Anything less than that will be laughed at by the insane people in Pyongyang, especially that warped psychopath Kim Jong Il. The North Koreans keep threatening war if anyone opposes them. The world will have to realize that constantly appeasing dictatorships like this only leads to worse problems. If North Korea was really willing to go to war, why hasn’t it done so already? If it really thinks it can win, what’s stopping them? The United States and South Korea are what’s stopping them. They know that if they launch an attack on South Korea, it will be the end of their regime. Unless there is going to be a military coup in North Korea soon (which seems unlikely), North Korea is going to keep sending arms and nuclear technology abroad. Unless someone forces them to stop doing so through the use of military force, they will simply ignore the rest of the world. Count on it.
Mr. Bosworth, just like Neville Chamberain, was encouraged by the atmosphere which was veryreasonable and businesslike. Why not? When your business is to lull ninnies into concluding that you are going to abandon your primary objective – to destroy them – why not send them on their way, rejoicing in their “negotiating skills”, while you are heartened by their obviously diminishing threat?
All around the world, one-party tyrannies. are being encouraged by an American government that congratulates itself on achievement, gives itself a higher grade, because they have pretended to agree to cooperate. This is commonly known as “setting them up for the sucker punch”.
At a time when our Republic is under open attack from more quarters and by more destructively armed enemies, than in all our history, we find ourselves governed by pea-brained apologists and a treasonous cabal of Mao-inspired neo-communists, supported by a sycophantic press.
The greatest failure of the Founding Fathers was in not providing a means of ridding ourselves, in mid term, of a disastrous and/or treasonous administration – something like the British vote of no confidence.
I guess this means Obama has to bow to Kim Jong Il. He better bring his knee pads this time…
The US State Department has been outmaneuvered and manipulated by the bad guys on a regular basis since WWII. It’s bad enough they generally sympathize with anyone with so much as a blush, but they don’t seem to have a clue how to handle anyone they genuinely want to influence! For a bunch of Ivy-League know-it-alls, these guys seem pretty clueless!
Is it just me or would we be better off as a nation just “bundling” our entire DoS into the UN and shipping the complete stinking lot off to Bangkok?
I see that Stuart Williamson stole my thunder. When the efforts by Chamberlain, and crew, to sell the Munich Pact are compared to the nonsense about carrots for North Korea, it is safe to say that only one book is used.
So, instead of just talking about it, you yappy Yanks, when are you going to do something about it? After all, the credibility your country is
on a downward spiral.
Bubblehead: The US State Dept has been totally corrupted by career leftist. They continue to work hard to work against our national interests.
It will take someone like Sarah Palin to wakeup the old boys network in Washington. It will take a party outsider hammering her own back to reality and giving notice to the opposition as well, that things have changed, before it ever will.
Until someone has the balls or tits to initiate real change that the O ring has so elegantly stated, but never followed through with, nothing will change, except maybe for the worse.
Now that everyone in the world likes us how come they keep shooting spit wads and taking our lunch?
The U.S. should learn from the Norks – start a program of pin-prick territorial infringement that is brazenly denied, then escalate and de-escalate to taste.
For example, recycling Cold War practice, resume balloon drops of cash (U.S. $ or Chinese Yuan) and propaganda aimed at North Koreans, especially aimed in remote areas. Use cheap UAV’s for more targeted drops of goods (including weapons) aimed at North Korea’s concentration camps.
Catalog the North Korean population, then use small bribes to communicate through indirect channels deep into North Korean society, especially outside Pyongyang.
For example, a reward could be offered whenever complementary messages reach a single recipient inside North Korea through different channels. The recipients would not necessarily need to know exactly what triggers the reward – only that passing on communications can pay.
It is simply amazing that we can try the same things decade after decade, failing the same way in every instance, yet continue to follow the same failed path. This in spite of people like C. Rosett and J. Bolton showing time and time again that this is imbicilic.
Someone should write a sequel to Tuchman’s “Follies of History” with these veritable cornucopias of failed policies, blindly continued – in spite of general recognition that they make no sense and are counter productive.
UN controlled Global warming funds anyone?
The State Department is full of career communist sympathizers. It has been that way since FDR. I think we need another Joe McCarthy to straighten this country out. The crooks we have in government today could care less about what is going outside of their sphere of corruption. Throw some money at North Korea and forget about it.
From Christopher Hill (and even Condi Rice) to, apparently, U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth, the beat goes on as the Norks play their continuing game.
I’d say both Kim and Arachnid-jihad have this game…keep indulging in talk while you conduct nuclear/armament business as usual…down pat.
“At a time when our Republic is under open attack from more quarters and by more destructively armed enemies, than in all our history, we find ourselves governed by pea-brained apologists and a treasonous cabal of Mao-inspired neo-communists, supported by a sycophantic press.”
mmmm mmmm mmmm, sentence of the day, so far
Bee-JEE-ness as usual for the Stalinist State of to be Kim Jung-Un!