Clinton's vs Bush record on Korea -American Progress report

[Fermezlabush]

THE CLINTON RECORD -- NORTH KOREA PRODUCES NO PLUTONIUM: In 1994, the United States almost went to war with North Korea to prevent the further development of their nuclear arsenal. (North Korea produced enough plutonium to create one or two nuclear weapons during the first Bush administration.) The conflict was narrowly avoided with the creation of the "Agreed Framework." Under the agreed framework, North Korea agreed to shut down its major nuclear reactor, stop construction of two nuclear power plants, and subject spent nuclear fuel to international inspection. In return, Japan and South Korea agreed to build two light-water reactors (far less of a proliferation concern) and the U.S. would supply North Korea with heavy oil to make up for the lost energy from its shuttered nuclear plants. Once the light-water reactors were completed, their existing nuclear reactors were to be dismantled. The deal wasn't perfect, but during the Clinton administration, North Korea didn't make any nuclear bombs.
snip

THE BUSH RECORD -- NORTH KOREA PRODUCES ENOUGH PLUTONIUM FOR AS MANY AS 10 NUKES: Upon taking office, the Bush administration rejected former Secretary of State Colin Powell's recommendation to "pick up where President Clinton and his administration left off." Instead, the Bush administration reversed Theodore Roosevelt's approach to foreign policy, speaking loudly but carrying no stick. The Bush administration ramped up the rhetoric. President Bush included North Korea in the "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union address, and "the National Security Strategy Statement of the United States released in 2002 talked about the possible need to take preemptive military action" against North Korea. When North Korea responded by expelling international inspectors and unsealing its nuclear facilities, the Bush administration had no effective response.
more
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=1331575&ct=2758603

[niceypoo]

1. Rolling Blunder

Awsome article on the subject

How the Bush administration let North Korea get nukes
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0405.kaplan.html

[Fermezlabush]

2. Excellent - thanks for this!

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. The AM radio rw nuts somehow have twisted this whole thing so

that it is Clinton's fault. Clearly it is bullshit, but never the less, that's how it comes out.

[gratuitous]

4. That's it in a nutshell

Under Clinton, North Korea stopped processing plutonium.

Under Bush, North Korea resumed processing plutonium, and by all reports now has enough material to produce a nuclear weapon.

The Bush administration, having effectively neutered itself by following the Bush doctrine of pre-emption, now finds itself impotent to do anything about North Korea except to stamp its little feet, beg China and Russia for help in negotiating with North Korea, and threaten to hold its breath until it turns blue.

Real effective foreign policy you're conducting there, Bush. Looks like all your bombast and hothead rhetoric has indeed morphed a smoking gun into the prospect of a mushroom cloud. Fookin' brilliant.

Have we risen at last to a level of criminal misconduct on a par with getting a blow job?