North Korea

[chronovore]

Has Japan suffered a diplomatic defeat? : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri):

"I was extremely shocked [by the U.S. decision to remove North Korea from the blacklist], as Japan would never agree to such a move," Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said in Washington on Saturday.

Nakagawa's remark came during talks Saturday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank heads, who had convened to address the global financial market crisis.

According to Nakagawa's close aides who accompanied him on his U.S. trip, the minister was keen to voice strong unease over the decision on behalf of the Japanese families whose relatives were abducted by North Korea.

Takeo Hiranuma, an independent who previously served as economy, trade and industry minister and currently heads a suprapartisan Diet members league to seek a resolution to the abductions, said to reporters in Honjo, Saitama Prefecture, on Sunday, "[The government] must resolutely pass on its message [to the United States]."

I did NOT GIVE MY PERMISSION to remove North Korea from the list of terrorist nations. I especially did not give permission to take them off that list while they are mobilizing missiles for "testing" because they're pissed off that treaty negotiations aren't going they way they want. Using fear and violence or the fear of violence to make a government acquiesce to demands... ISN'T THAT THE VERY DEFINITION OF TERRORISM?

Comments

[olliecrafoord.livejournal.com]

What! When did this happen? Was I asleep?

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Apparently recently. Check the response below for details.

[nattotastic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was pretty shocked when they announced that. I can't see any reason for it... I know they are trying to keep N. Korea to stick to the plan, but as famine mounts and since KJI is sick, they aren't actually in a position to negotiate.

However, the Bush Administration, trying futilely to finish the term with a positive legacy has decided to cave in. I'm literally shocked at how many things this administration can get wrong. Really. No matter who ends up winning-- Obama or McCain --they can't win soon enough.

I think this is a great opportunity for Japan to redefine the word "defensive" by increasing funding to the Jietai and mobilizing it in the Sea of Japan.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Bush's legacy is just so pathetic. I think McCain will be worse than Bush; I question his ability to think straight or have an opinion which isn't handed to him by his advisers, and Palin is a lobbyist's wet dream.

[nattotastic.livejournal.com]

I don't know... McCain is not the ideal choice by any measure (any political capital he had with me was lost when he chose Palin), but he doesn't play by the neo-con rules (haven't you heard? He's a maverick), so he is less likely to make a further mess out of foreign policy than Bush already has. His policy of "100 years in Iraq" is because he believes that since we are there we have some sort of obligation to "finish the job", whatever the fuck that means.

My biggest problems with McCain is that he's more hawkish than Obama, and we saw how well the fight-first/talk-later method worked. Also he's an economic lightweight (self-admittedly in fact) in a time where we need someone who can understand that. His tax plan gives breaks to the rich, and kind of sidesteps the middle class (he believes in Reaganomics). His judgement is extremely suspect in terms of who he chose as a running mate (christ, she even has ethics issues). I just can't imagine a worse choice for someone with a very real possibility of passing away in office.

[nattotastic.livejournal.com]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, while McCain is not an ideal, if he gets picked I think we'll be in better shape than if Bush were to clone himself and do a third term, ala the Emperor from the Dark Empire comics.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

You've entirely blown past my geek-buffers with that last comparison.

Personally, McCain is just too scary, too PTSD'd, too weirdly unpredictable, but more than that, he might die. And then we'd have Palin in office, who I'm pretty sure would be as bad or worse than Bush and Cheney.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

I had a talk with one of my coworkers today; he was PISSED about the delisting of N. Korea from the terrorist nations. He said, "We helped with that ill-advised clusterfuck (my words) in Iraq, despite our better judgment, and this is how we are repaid? It's OK to get angry, right?"

I said, "Yeah, get angry, that's fine. Welcome to the club!"

[nattotastic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Bush administration is pretty fucking retarded. Japan might need to take care of this whole issue themselves to get anything accomplished.