It is likely that it will hurt plans for sanctions. Of course it has been nearly a month since the launch and there has been no significant response from the UN Security Council so with no timely discipline the spoiled child will continue to act out.
But the real issue is that the regime is likely to view this visit has official because Kim Jong-un and his advisors cannot believe that the US would allow Richardson and Schmidt to make the trip if they did not want them to come because of the north's mirror image analysis.
It is possible that they could obtain the release of Kenneth Bae but Richardson and Schmidt should be seen simply as Kim Jung-un's tools to support his "Image First Politics" strategy. Yes, they are tools.
V/R
Dave
Google's N. Korea visit could harm U.S. sanction plans
|
Oren Dorell
7:43p.m. EST January 7, 2013
Comments
Share
|
North Korea's new leader could use the visit to claim international legitimacy in his own country and to show other countries it is preparing a new era of openness.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Former governor says visit is 'a private humanitarian mission'
- State Department says trip is 'ill-advised'
- U.S. pushes U.N. for more penalties on regime
A visit to North Korea by former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and Google chairman Eric Schmidt could harm U.S. efforts to sanction the dictatorship for refusing to curb its nuclear program and missile production, Korea experts say.
The U.S. State Department complained Monday that the visit by Richardson and Schmidt was poorly timed given that the United States is trying to persuade the United Nations to further sanction North Korea.
"We think the timing is ill-advised," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
The reason for State's objection is that North Korea and its allies in China will use the visit to convey "an image of openness and receptivity to the outside," said Evans Revere, the State Department's deputy chief negotiator with North Korea during the Clinton administration.
The visit helps the regime "convey a sense of legitimacy and international recognition and acceptance to its own people" at the very moment that the State Department is preparing to respond with sanctions in the U.N. Security Council, Revere said.
Richardson described the visit as "a private humanitarian mission." He said he hoped to meet with U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae, who was born in South Korea and arrested in North Korea during a tourist visit in November.
(Continued at the link below)
No comments:
Post a Comment