The Ten-Year Century by James B. Sutherland

Author:James B. Sutherland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2010-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

THE PYGMY

Bush desperately wanted democracy to spread to North Korea and topple Kim Jong-Il’s government. He hated the dictator and the way Kim treated North Korean citizens. Bush once referred to Kim as “the pygmy” in front of senators, implying he was a small, second-rate man. There was hope in the administration that the invasion of Iraq would send a message to Kim—reform or you might be next.

But with the U.S. facing a tougher fight than expected in Iraq and failing to find WMD, Kim apparently decided that Saddam’s big mistake had been not actually having WMD. In January of 2004, he invited an American delegation of nuclear experts to visit his reactor, and his scientists showed one of the visitors a small sample of plutonium they had apparently manufactured. It was proof they could create fuel for a nuclear bomb. On February 10, 2005, North Korea announced it had developed a nuclear weapon because it felt threatened by the United States.

The Bush administration seemed to have little leverage for negotiating an end to North Korea’s nuclear program. In fact, Bush refused to even negotiate directly with the North Koreans—administration officials felt it would give Kim what he wanted, to be treated like a world power, a nation on the same level as the United States. They insisted all talks be among the six nations with the most direct interests in the problem—North Korea, the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia. The U.S. offered nothing that would actually induce North Korea to give up its weapons programs. So the standoff continued.

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