I’m not kidding. He’s actually trying to claim the agreement he brokered with then-North Korean President President Kim Il-sung (father of current North Korean maniac President Kim Jong-il) was working … until President Bush declared North Korea a member of the axis of evil back in January 2002. Via an opinion piece he wrote for the NYT:
Responding to an invitation from President Kim Il-sung of North Korea, and with the approval of President Bill Clinton, I went to Pyongyang and negotiated an agreement under which North Korea would cease its nuclear program at Yongbyon and permit inspectors from the atomic agency to return to the site to assure that the spent fuel was not reprocessed. It was also agreed that direct talks would be held between the two Koreas.
The spent fuel (estimated to be adequate for a half-dozen bombs) continued to be monitored, and extensive bilateral discussions were held. The United States assured the North Koreans that there would be no military threat to them, that it would supply fuel oil to replace the lost nuclear power and that it would help build two modern atomic power plants, with their fuel rods and operation to be monitored by international inspectors. The summit talks resulted in South Korean President Kim Dae-jung earning the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for his successful efforts to ease tensions on the peninsula.
But beginning in 2002, the United States branded North Korea as part of an axis of evil, threatened military action, ended the shipments of fuel oil and the construction of nuclear power plants and refused to consider further bilateral talks. In their discussions with me at this time, North Korean spokesmen seemed convinced that the American positions posed a serious danger to their country and to its political regime.
Responding in its ill-advised but predictable way, Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, expelled atomic energy agency inspectors, resumed processing fuel rods and began developing nuclear explosive devices.
What a flipping joke! Can you believe the chutzpah of this guy? He’s completely whitewashed what happened after that ‘historic’ 1994 deal was made, and Republicans should not let him get away with it. Here’s a small sampling of incidents that took place after the 1994 Agreed Framework and before the Axis of Evil speech:
Aug. 31, 1998: North Korea fires a multistage over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, proving it can strike any part of Japan’s territory.
May 25-28, 1999: Former Defense Secretary William Perry visits North Korea and delivers a U.S. disarmament proposal.
Sept. 13: North Korea pledges to freeze long-range missile tests.
Sept. 17: U.S. President Bill Clinton eases economic sanctions against North Korea.
December: A U.S.-led consortium signs a US$4.6 billion contract for two safer, Western-developed light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea.
July 2000: North Korea again threatens to restart its nuclear program if Washington doesn’t compensate for the loss of electricity caused by delays in building nuclear power plants.
June 2001: North Korea warns it will reconsider its moratorium on missile tests if the Bush administration doesn’t resume contacts aimed at normalizing relations.
July: State Department reports North Korea is going ahead with development of its long-range missile. A Bush administration official says North Korea conducts an engine test of the Taepodong-1 missile.
December: President Bush warns Iraq and North Korea that they would be “held accountable” if they developed weapons of mass destruction “that will be used to terrorize nations.”
Although the sanctions against North Korea were largely lifted and oil deliveries began in early 1995, the development of the LWRs became more complex. The U.S., South Korea, Japan and several other countries came together to form the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) to build the reactors. KEDO soon pushed back the deadline for completing the reactors from 2003 to 2007. Bureaucratic wrangling over contracts and the establishment of KEDO slowed the process even more so that the foundations for the two reactors were not poured until August 2002.
North Korea also slowed the process by making new demands on KEDO, including that the consortium cover the costs of modernizing the North’s electricity grid. KEDO rejected the request and the North countered with a demand that the U.S. cover the costs associated with the delayed reactors, which the U.S. has refused to do.
Even as the nations were debating implementation of the Agreed Framework, North Korea, the U.S. argues, was breaking the spirit, if not the letter, of the pact. Within months of signing the framework, North Korea and Pakistan reportedly cut a deal to trade missile technology for Pakistan’s uranium enrichment techniques — the Agreed Framework had banned plutonium enrichment programs.
For more than three years, the North Koreans worked quietly on their uranium project while urging the U.S. to fully implement the Agreed Framework. According to a Chinese government report that was leaked to a Japanese newspaper, the project included a secret uranium processing facility located inside Mount Chonma, near the Chinese border.
The Clinton administration apparently learned of the secret program in late 1998 or early 1999, and by March 2000, President Clinton informed Congress he could no longer certify that “North Korea is not seeking to develop or acquire the capability to enrich uranium.”
Heightened tensions in the peninsula
Over the next two years, the United States continued to compile evidence on North Korea’s uranium project. It was this evidence that prompted President Bush to label the Kim Jong Il government part of the “axis of evil” in his 2002 State of the Union address.
In other words, it was the utter failure of the Carter’s Agreed Framework that led President Bush to declare North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, as a member of the axis of evil.
What Carter has done here is deliberately omitted facts that are clearly out there on other sites for all to research as to what North Korea’s actions were after the 1994 Agreed Framework and before the President’s 2002 declaration of NK as part of the axis of evil. This is not just a misrepresentation of the activities that have taken place in North Korea since 1994 being perpetuated by a former American president who was a key participant in the agreement, it’s an outright lie. Not only that, but he’s utilizing a tactic so many other far lefties who, instead of analyzing an issue in depth to understand how it came about and what should be done about it, choose to throw out there without thinking: BLAME BUSH, because it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with a failure of Democratic polices, now could it?
That’s not to say the Bush adminstration has handled the North Korea situation perfectly. But for Carter, who won a Nobel Peace prize in 2002 in part thanks to his joke of an agreement with North Korea which led to anything but ‘peace’, to mislead the American people into thinking that things were all wine and roses between the US and North Korea prior to the President’s 2002 axis of evil speech is a gross distortion of the facts.
Well, the roses part, anyway. The wine part is another:
Hat tip: Dean Barnett
PM Update: McQ provides more info on NK’s activities, including this crucial link (emphasis added):
The Bush Administration disclosed on October 16, 2002, that North Korea had revealed to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kellyin Pyongyang that it was conducting a secret nuclear weapons program based on the process of uranium enrichment. North Korea admitted the program in response to U.S. evidence presented by Kelly.
The program is based on the process of uranium enrichment, in contrast to North Korea’s pre-1995 nuclear program based on plutonium reprocessing. North Korea began a secret uranium enrichment program after 1995 reportedly with the assistance of Pakistan. North Korea provided Pakistan with intermediate range ballistic missiles in the late1990s. The Central Intelligence Agency issued a statement in December 2002 that North Korea likely could produce an atomic bomb through uranium enrichment in 2004.
Memeorandum has many more links to bloggers right and left discussing Carter’s opinion piece as well as the overall situation with North Korea.
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Thank you for the chronology, the first I’ve seen from a right-wing perspective. What part of the chronology shows North Korea violating the terms of Clinton’s Framework? I don’t see it.
I see bellicose actions. I see actions to get nuclear arms that were not addressed in the treaty. But I don’t see violations of the treaty itself. If that is right, then wouldn’t the Bush administration have been more prudent to expand the Framework, instead of gutting it completely and leaving us with what we have now?
Comment by longz @ 10/11/2006 - 10:33 am
Did you not read what I read? I specifically stated that Carter’s making the relationship between the US and North Korea before Bush’s axis of evil speech seem like it was all wine and roses was complete horsecrap.
Did you also not read this?
Even Bubba himself didn’t believe that North Korea was abiding by the Agreed Framework. It was a joke from the getgo that no one believed would work but Carter himself. But whether or not the framework was technically violated, the point of my post was to show that Carter was lying when he made it sound like NK was behaving before the axis of evil speech. They weren’t. Not for a long time.
Sorry, but the Clinton-Carter apologist stuff won’t wash.
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 10/11/2006 - 10:42 am
Great post, Sister! Ole Jimmah Cattah.. the gift that keeps on giving! What an utter ass!
BYW, I learned of your site at Amy Proctors. You gals are great! I’ll add you to my blogroll and news feed.
Thanks!
Comment by Max Creel @ 10/11/2006 - 10:49 am
The left’s favorite mantra are “Bush lied people died” and “when Clinton lied noone died”. They seem to forget that there is absolutely no proof that Bush has lied about anything, and Clinton has been proven to have lied many times over. All one has to do is look at the number of indictments during the Clinton years to realize something smells fishy. And Carter, what can I say? That pathetic old man needs to fade into retirement.
Comment by arcman @ 10/11/2006 - 10:58 am
Thanks, Sister, I read what you wrote very closely, looking for examples of violation of the Framework, and I still don’t see any.
All I see is something about violation of the “spirit” but not the letter of the Framework. And Bubba, if you read what he actually said, did not say the Framework was being violated. He said he could no longer guarantee uranium was not being enriched. But North Korea didn’t guarantee in the Framework that it would not enrich uranium. It agreed not to process plutonium in North Korea. It pulled a sneak move by going outside the Framework and getting material from Pakistan, supposedly our ally, and processing uranium, not outlawed under the Framework.
So, again, do you have any examples of the Framework actually being violated?
Comment by longz @ 10/11/2006 - 10:59 am
Carter’s piece states that the Agreed Framework prohibited plutonium enrichment. Clinton said they might be trying to enrich uranium. Not the same thing. Carter’s piece provides plenty of information on how N. Korea was trying to get around the Agreement and making other hostile moves, and so doesn’t represent that the problem was completely solved. Isn’t it reasonable to expect counter-argument from the left when every right wing voice is immediately echoing the “blame Clinton” position?
Comment by Open Mouthed Fool @ 10/11/2006 - 11:08 am
That is so stupid longz. Instead of putting dirt in the water to make mud they got somebody else to put dirt in the water to make mud and so they can be argued by the left to not have made mud or not violated the framework?
What is it when somebody doesn’t murder his wife but gets somebody else to?
I guess according to you (twisted) they would be off scott free.
Comment by Baklava @ 10/11/2006 - 11:23 am
“All I see is something about violation of the “spirit” but not the letter of the Framework.”
I know what administration said, which was essentially that the framework was being violated in spirit, and perhaps the letter too. Why do you think Albright spent so much time with il? There would be no reason to do so if the agreement was working.
ROTFL - It went “outside the Framework” but didn’t violate the agreement? Let’s go over this again:
I swear, you Clinton apologists will spin anything in order to get your boy off the hook. It’s not going to work. I guess now you’re going to tell me that NK wanted to learn uranium enrichment techniques back in 1994 - after the agreement was signed - for peaceful purposes? LOL!
“So, again, do you have any examples of the Framework actually being violated? ”
Again, are you having difficulty comprehending? Here’s what I said in my earlier comment, with emphasis added:
Do you have any comment on Carter’s whitewashing of NK’s behavior prior to the axis of evil declaration, or do you want to continue to be what I can only describe as deliberately obtuse about what’s being asserted?
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 10/11/2006 - 11:26 am
So Dhimmi Carter says:
But we now know this:
So the fact that NK broke the agreement from the start was already known, even during the Clinton years, but somehow this is all Bush’s fault?? That’s just delusional.
Carter’s place as possibly the most gullible president in history was assured when he helped the mad mullahs take over Iran. There really wasn’t any need to embellish it by negotiating a way to help NK become a nuclear power in exchange for a few worthless promises. Maybe he has the need to be the best at what he does. Unfortunately, what he does best is damage American security.
Comment by Great White Rat @ 10/11/2006 - 11:29 am
“Carter’s piece provides plenty of information on how N. Korea was trying to get around the Agreement and making other hostile moves, and so doesn’t represent that the problem was completely solved.
I see we have someone else who apparently didn’t read what was presented. Here was what Carter said about the time period between after the agreed framework in 1994 and Bush’s speech in January 2002 (emphasis added):
You were saying, again?
“Isn’t it reasonable to expect counter-argument from the left when every right wing voice is immediately echoing the “blame Clinton” position? ”
Uh, what made you think I thought it was ‘unreasonable’ to expect a counter-argument from the left? Being Clinton apologists is what you guys do best, outside of perpetuating myths about how Bush “LIED!!!!!!!!”
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 10/11/2006 - 11:36 am
And is this the explanation:
Ah, now I see. No plutonium, just plain old uranium. So I guess that means they weren’t trying to build nuclear warheads then?
More word-parsing from the left…why am I not surprised? Now, the question is, did our libs learn it from the NKs, or the other way around? Or is it just a genetic trait of socialists?
Comment by Great White Rat @ 10/11/2006 - 11:43 am
Sister writes: “I know what administration said, which was essentially that the framework was being violated in spirit, and perhaps the letter too. Why do you think Albright spent so much time with il? There would be no reason to do so if the agreement was working.”
This is exactly the point I’m making. Wouldn’t it make more sense for Bush to rework the Framework, to “spend so much time with it” so that it worked the way we wanted it to, covering things like uranium processing, firing missiles at Japan and the other belligerent behavior? Albright was trying to do that, but time ran out. Powell took it up and said carrying on the negotiations was a “no-brainer.” But he was overruled.
Instead, we refused to negotiate and instead meekly raised threats that everyone knew we couldn’t carry through. We were left with something everyone has dreaded.
Comment by longz @ 10/11/2006 - 11:48 am
Repeating from earlier:
Do you agree or disagree with that statement? A simple yes or no will do.
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 10/11/2006 - 11:51 am
longz laughingly wrote, “Wouldn’t it make more sense for Bush to rework the Framework, to “spend so much time with it” so that it worked the way we wanted it to
That might make sense if it was proved to have been working. It wasn’t. It’s like talking to a teenager and having a framework where the teenager doesn’t do drugs. The teenager is doing drugs however and longz insists as a parent to go back to talking as opposed to having the intervention with 6 other close figures (nations like China and Japan). To go back to the one parent talking would be a step backwards…
Comment by Baklava @ 10/11/2006 - 12:04 pm
longz asks,
Wouldn’t it make more sense for Bush to rework the Framework, to “spend so much time with it” so that it worked the way we wanted it to, covering things like uranium processing, firing missiles at Japan and the other belligerent behavior?
No, it wouldn’t. That’s because you are dealing with an irrational dictatorship that has absolutely no itention of abiding by the agreement in the first place.
First, think about how long it would take to negotiate every detail. Think years, not months. And all that time the NKs would be playing for time, working full speed at developing their nukes. And as soon as they’d have the weapons built, they’d walk away from the table and laugh at you.
Second, even if you covered every eventuality, they’d look for a place to get around the agreement, as they did with the original. Agreement says can’t fire missiles at Japan? Well, then let’s fire them over Japan. And they could count on the usual suspects (Pelosi, Reid, Carter, longz) to blame Bush.
In that situation, there’s no point in negotiating. There’s nothing to be gained by it. You have to be completely gullible (think Carter, Albright, etc.) to think otherwise. We were placed in this situation - the one you say “everyone has dreaded” - the minute Carter and Clinton thought that helping NK with nuclear fuel and aid was a good idea.
Comment by Great White Rat @ 10/11/2006 - 12:04 pm
Sister,
You ask if I disagree with this statement: “Carter was lying when he made it sound like NK was behaving before the axis of evil speech. They weren’t. Not for a long time.”
If you could point to a place where Carter said that NK was behaving, then I would say, yes, he’s lying. All you say is, he “made it sound” like something.
Great White, if they do the weasely things you suggest they could have, such as firing over Japan, instead of “at,” then North Korea is probably not as irrational as you think. Next, you complain that a binding framework takes so much time it wouldn’t be worth it. Um - it’s been six long years.
Comment by longz @ 10/11/2006 - 12:28 pm
“Carter was lying when he made it sound like NK was behaving before the axis of evil speech.” Carter points out the positive effects of the dialog, but he also mentions NK’s efforts to obtain uranium, develop missle technology, etc. outside of the framework. Your intended point, apparently, is that Carter is painting an overly sunny picture of the situation before 2002(”lying.”)
“More word-parsing from the left…” If the terms of the Framework didn’t cover uranium enrichment, then this was not a violation. I’m not trying to argue that NK was not taking any belligerent action.
I don’t think Carter is being a “Clinton apologist,” I think he is trying to point out the potential benefits for progress when we engage in dialog, even with an unreliable party such as NK. Apparently, you, and President Bush, don’t agree with this.
Comment by Open Mouthed Fool @ 10/11/2006 - 12:35 pm
longz: “If you could point to a place where Carter said that NK was behaving, then I would say, yes, he’s lying. All you say is, he “made it sound” like something.”
ST: ROTFL! You guys are a trip. So someone has to outright SAY something before you can draw a conclusion one way or the other as to what their assertions are?? Have you ever heard of the term “guilty by omission”? Sheesh!
O.M. Fool: “Carter points out the positive effects of the dialog, but he also mentions NK’s efforts to obtain uranium, develop missle technology, etc. outside of the framework.
ST: Where in this piece did he mention that? This is where he talked about what happened after the agreed framework and before Bush’s speech:
Please provide a direct quote that backs up your assertion.
O.M. Fool: “Your intended point, apparently, is that Carter is painting an overly sunny picture of the situation before 2002(”lying.”)”
ST: Yes, because that’s exactly what he was doing.
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 10/11/2006 - 1:26 pm
I stand corrected, you’re right, Carter didn’t acknowledge other hostile NK actions outside the Framework. Got my time lines mixed up, there.
Comment by Open Mouthed Fool @ 10/11/2006 - 1:48 pm
Sister says: “You guys are a trip. So someone has to outright SAY something before you can draw a conclusion one way or the other as to what their assertions are??”
No, sis, that’s not what you were saying. You were saying Carter was “lying” by not asserting the things you thought he should have. If you can show me where he asserted that North Korea was blameless, please show me.
Comment by longz @ 10/11/2006 - 2:14 pm
I said he was lying by the sin of omission, I didn’t say he “said” they weren’t misbehaving. Get a grip. He gave the false sense that NK was behaving before Bush’s speech. They weren’t. Why you can’t get that is a mystery to me. Maybe you’re just arguing for the hell of it. Fine. You can argue til the cows come home, but that still wouldn’t make you correct.
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 10/11/2006 - 2:16 pm
longz says:
Great White, if they do the weasely things you suggest they could have, such as firing over Japan, instead of “at,” then North Korea is probably not as irrational as you think. Next, you complain that a binding framework takes so much time it wouldn’t be worth it. Um - it’s been six long years.
OK, so you consider their open support for terrorists, loony leader-worship, and single-minded pursuit of nuclear arms while their people starve to be rational?? No one ever said irrational regimes can’t be ‘weasely’.
Yes, six years. So what? Remember the Vietnam peace talks? The NVs deliberately delayed progress at every step. They even argued about the shape of the negotiating table!
Was there a reason for stretching the talks out? You bet there was. They wanted to give their allies in the US - the left, the media - every opportunity to gain strength and undermine national policy. Did it ever cross your mind that the NKs might have learned something from that?
This administration could have started talks with the NKs on January 20, 2001, and it would have done absolutely no good. The pattern’s predictable. They would delay for at least two reasons:
- Play for time while continuing to develop weapons grade material, and
- Take a page from the Vietnam playbook and hope their friends on the left take power.
Delaying until either of those two events would suit them just fine, thanks.
Finally, read your quote above. You’re talking about a binding framework. I challenge you to tell us exactly what makes you think the NKs would live up to any agreement, no matter how detailed. An agreement that’s binding on us but not on them is a fool’s errand. It’s a waste of time and only makes the world more dangerous.
Comment by Great White Rat @ 10/11/2006 - 3:08 pm
jimmah cottah has been mainlining peanut oil. He is trying to re-write history, we ALL know what happened when maddie allnotsobright went over there, gave him that damn basketball, drank and toasted with this toad and handed him tons of money and stuff and what did they do jimmah?
God, what an idiot…the more he speaks the dumber he sounds.
Butt
Comment by Drewsmom @ 10/11/2006 - 6:28 pm
- This one is easy. Already spent the day absolutely demolishing the empty ranting’s of all the SP’s that are laboring so hard to get out the “Clinton/Cartah legacy defense’s”. *chuckle*.
- Carter made an absolute mess out of the ME, starting with such statesmanship jewels as managing to get our embassy, and its personel “kidnapped”. His entire Presidency was an national embarrassment, until Reagan was sworn in, and an hour later the Iranian’s freed the Embassy. A great deal of the WOT problems we are now having to deal with are a direct result of the peanut farmers total unsuitability to hold public office, much less be president. Its possible his brother Billy, the family drunk, had more common sense that Jhimmi. The man is now simply senile, and will go to his grave trying in vain to revise history. But a clown is always a clown.
- Now we see the Demdorks yammering about how “well” Clinton and Maggies appeasement approach worked. Never mind the recent actions of NK, and the fact they were steadily developing bombs, ignoring every promise they ever made, and playing Clinton and his peace-nik administration like a fine violin.
- Even worse the Liberals have been trying to juggle so many balls - one on one, no coilition - no one on one - no colition, over and over and over. we tried their way, ad nausua, and this is what we got for it.
- I could blast holes through all their hysterical revisions and papering over the truth you could drive a 747 through, McCain did it quite well as soon as the Dem leadership started spewing their lies and trying to push it all on Bush, but it’s easier just to put it this way:
General advice for Dems -
We’ll leave it to your side to carry on the important work of propping up the “Clinton legacy”, work your party is uniquely suited for, while our side deals with the real problems as usual. No one will be surprised, especially the voters.
- That will give you ample time to figure out pithy response’s to deal with Clinton’s dalliance’s. Things like moistening his cigars in Monika’s “essense”, while all of this was going on, and the NK was laughing at you behind your appeasing backs, taking all your handouts, and going right ahead with their plans. Little Kim made a fool out of your party and your fearless “diddler”.
- Might be more apropos if you saved your anger for Kim and N. Korea. Oh thats right, I forgot. Progressives only yell their garbage at people that won’t cut their heads off or throw them in a gulag. Lot safer that way.
You have a lot of revising to do, so you need to get busy. Don’t worry about America. It’s in good hands, and you have important issues to deal with like “image”.
- Carter I don’t even bother with anymore. The best we can hope for is that he doesn’t cause anymore disasters.
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 10/11/2006 - 6:32 pm
Bang, what can I say, you always nail it so perfectly.
You need to be a speaker at the RNC convention in 08.
I’d pay good $$$$ to be able to hear some bloggers get on that stage and talk, would be more refreshing than listening to stale politicians.
Comment by Drewsmom @ 10/12/2006 - 5:53 am
Didn’t North Korea basically promise to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions in exchange for two reactors, some fuel, and some grain back in 1993?
You just can’t believe promises made by a psychotic dictator who’ll gladly starve his own people to make sure his army is fed.
I believe Madeline Albright admitted two years ago that North Korea cheated. Big surprise. Who would’ve thought a regime like that would’ve cheated?
Comment by Ryan @ 10/12/2006 - 11:01 pm