Kim Jong Il Dares Obama
Will the U.S. intercept a North Korean ship suspected of carrying proliferation materials?
If the Kang Nam is indeed carrying illicit material and Kim Jong Il wants it delivered — in other words, if he is not staging an incident to embarrass the Obama administration — he has surely arranged for the ship to visit only friendly ports along the way. That means the United States, if it chooses to honor the restraints imposed by Resolution 1874, may be forced to watch the vessel unload a dangerous cargo at its intended destination. This possibility, of course, raises a critical issue: Should we be outsourcing our security to the UN?
We relied on the UN in the first part of this decade, and what happened? North Korea became a nuclear weapons state. China didn’t enforce the 2006 Security Council resolution on inspecting North Korean cargoes, and the next year we learned that North Korea was proliferating nuclear technology to Syria.
“The United States will do what is necessary to do to defend U.S. national security and the national security of our allies,” said Stephen Bosworth, Washington’s part-time North Korean envoy. Yet that is not entirely clear, as the record of the last few years indicates. n December 2002, for example, we asked Spain to interdict an unflagged North Korean vessel carrying missiles to Yemen. After the Spanish boarded the ship — risking their lives to do so — we then told them to let the vessel proceed to its destination. What kind of policy was that? We gave Kim Jong Il, as well as everyone else, a big green light to continue proliferation.
There is no greater challenge for the United States than stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technologies. And now we are going to see if the new American president is more resolute than his predecessor and as determined as Bosworth wants us to believe. Chairman Kim has obviously gamed out the Kang Nam situation. Pyongyang has said the interdiction of one of its ships pursuant to the new Security Council resolution means war. He then sent out the vessel five days after the passage of the new UN measure.
Presumably, North Korea’s leader does not want to start a full-scale conflict — that would undoubtedly result in the end of his regime — and he certainly does not want us to seize weapons being exported to customers. That means essentially one of two things: either the Kang Nam is carrying an innocent cargo and Kim is seeking to humiliate us or he thinks he can avoid inspections along the intended route.
In any case, the North Korean leader is stage managing an incident. So far, he and his destitute state have gotten the best of the strongest nation in history. This is, for us, a critical test of strategy and will.
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Gordon G. Chang is the author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World and The Coming Collapse of China.
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38 Comments
1. Douglas:Why don’t we have Jimmy Carter inspect the ship? He is a ‘nuculer engineer’ and greatly repected by dictators around the world.
Jun 21, 2009 - 4:15 am 2. SAF:If there is illicit weapons then time to starve them out. There are no innocents in North Korea, just a bunch of people that won’t stand up for themselves. Not our job to bring them democracy its their job.
Starvation will make them get the point.
Jun 21, 2009 - 4:25 am 3. Humiliation:The most critical test of American strategy and will was Election Day 2008.
We failed.
Miserably.
Jun 21, 2009 - 4:36 am 4. tanstaafl:Should Pyongyang refuse to divert the ship — another certainty — the resolution contemplates the filing of a report to a UN committee.
Oh boy, another UN report. You’d think that bldg. in NYC would be crumbling under the sheer weight of voluminous reports.
…either the Kang Nam is carrying an innocent cargo and Kim is seeking to humiliate us or he thinks he can avoid inspections along the intended route.
Hasn’t the Kang Nam carried nuclear cargo before ? Given Kim’s penchant for diversion and subterfuge (attempting to mislead from where he will launch his next tiny-po-dong, uh, taepodong July 4),it wouldn’t be surprising if the Kang Nam is another diversion.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, if you’re not of the luxuriating “martial class” in North Korea, you can forage for berries & grasses, eat clay, whatever you must to try to survive…(love that Kim…”a stroke-shrivelled 67-year-old”)
New tanks, new missiles, new guns – but hunger rules
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:08 am 5. pedro:Think of the refugees that will be flooding into China & S.Korea?
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:31 am 6. Barry 0351:The teleprompter will blink first.
Jun 21, 2009 - 6:12 am 7. rb:What if the ship never goes to port? Extra fuel tanks or refueling at sea would ensure that it reaches its destination.
Jun 21, 2009 - 6:29 am 8. Meryl:2.SAF
I agree with your political sentiment, but the politicos who are running NK are not going to starve. The population has been dying of starvation for decades. That has been their life. A complete blockade of provisions will not influence the decision-makers, nor will it make the situation any worse for the general population.
The tyrants running the place have their chefs and provisions flown in from Europe and the Mideast. That’s why little Kim is so pudgy and round. His son attended school in Switzerland (I think it was)…certainly didn’t get all his education in NK.
I keep wondering if Joe Biden’s warning to us last fall that our pompous Kimobama’s apparent stupidity in the face of an international incident should expected–I keep wondering if that warning had to do with just one situation or if he’d be willing now to attach a number to it.
It seems I’ve seen about 10 tests in the last 6 weeks where he is stupidly standing there with his thuggish nose high in the air, as he swivels from TOTUS to TOTUS, lecturing us about how all the plugged toilets in the world ARE our fault.
Well, at least the US has proved they can elect a half-black man and neither his race nor his character (lack of) was an obstacle to his selection. If we survive this as a nation, maybe we can get back to the real world and elect someone who is judged, as Martin Luther King said, not on the color of his skin but on the content of his character.
Hope the bambi-worshipping folks will be satisfied with their memories, because I don’t think they will get the chance in this lifetime again to elect someone just because he’s black.
Jun 21, 2009 - 6:55 am 9. katablog.com:Oh No! Not the dreaded “file a report” to the UN! No wonder North Korea is so ticked at us.
Jun 21, 2009 - 7:24 am 10. Delia:Rut Rowe.
“I have a leetle nuke for youuuuuuu, DohBama! A berry, berry leetle nuke, but, eet weel hurt like a bad moh-skeeta bit on your lanky ankle!” Lub, Kim Illin’ and chillin’
Jun 21, 2009 - 7:37 am 11. savage24:A couple of years under the Obama administration, the people of the USA are going to look like the NK people. Are we going to be innocent people, ruled by a tyrant too?
Jun 21, 2009 - 9:42 am 12. Duane Phinney:The US has every right to board and inspect the NK cargo ship. After all we are still at war. NK tore up the cease fire agreement we had last week.
Jun 21, 2009 - 1:16 pm 13. Barry 0351:If it does not pull into port to refuel it is going to refuel underway should be quite easy to delay, distract and deny the UNREP without firing a shot.
Jun 21, 2009 - 1:48 pm 14. Meryl:Well, if our government is collectively stupid enough to outsource our security to the UN, then I guess they are probably also stupid enough to be content with “filing a report” and going back to whatever what they were doing.
Maybe they’ll stamp their foot as well. That’ll show ‘em.
Jun 21, 2009 - 2:04 pm 15. Clinton:I agree with Duane. We are once again at war with them when Kim “tore up the cease fire” papers. I happen to be a 80 year old Korean Vet. Having spent almost 15 months over there in Japan and then Korea, I fully understand the problem. The night of the cease fire, I was in a squad tent on the lee side of a hill, just a short distance from the present DMZ. It turned out to be one of the worst fire fights we had seen in a long time, up to about 10 PM. The main problem with NK… they can not be trusted any way. They broke the cease fire rule time and time again before I finally left. My last day there, we had a MIG do a flight right down in our compound, so low that I could have hit it with a rock. I feel that we should wait for it to get out of Chinese waters, and then take it, and dare little Kim to just start something so that we could finish the job that we didn`t on July 27, 1953……….Using ANY weapon that we possess.
Jun 21, 2009 - 4:17 pm 16. Gordon Chang:Douglas, Jimmy Carter inspecting the ship? What a great idea! I wish I had thought about that. Many thanks for a brilliant suggestion.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:11 pm 17. Gordon Chang:SAF, I think there are innocents in North Korea, but I like your idea of strangling the regime. Our concern for the North Korean people of today, while understandable, is condemning future generations in the country to Kim-family rule.
We like to think that no one should suffer. Unfortunately, that is no longer possible.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:14 pm 18. Gordon Chang:Humiliation, you are right, but, from the standpoint of North Korea, we failed on the election days in 2000 and 2004 as well. Failure is, unfortunately, bipartisan.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:16 pm 19. Gordon Chang:tanstaafl, as you point out, the world does not need another U.N. report. It does need another hero, despite what Tina Turner told us. We see no heroes in sight, however. We see every president fail when it comes to North Korea. There are no happy endings for the Korean people–or for us for that matter.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:21 pm 20. Gordon Chang:pedro, the refugees will move south to South Korea, not north to China, when the North Korean regime fails.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:22 pm 21. Gordon Chang:Barry 0351, yes. The Obama administration does not have a Korea policy, even now. All we are doing at this point is reacting.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:23 pm 22. Gordon Chang:rb, who will refuel the North Korean ship at sea? China? Not possible.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:24 pm 23. Gordon Chang:katablog.com, yes, it will be a report if the Kang Nam’s destination is Burma, as it is rumored to be. If this is the case, we will not stop it if we accept the restrictions of Resolution 1874.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:27 pm 24. Gordon Chang:Duane Phinney, yes, you are right. Many thanks for a great comment.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:29 pm 25. Gordon Chang:Barry 0351, I don’t think North Korea can replenish mid-ocean, fortunately.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:30 pm 26. Gordon Chang:Meryl, yep, I think you captured the essence of what will happen. We will stamp our feet.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:31 pm 27. Gordon Chang:Clinton, thanks for the bit of history. Policymakers should read the part about the North Koreans repeatedly breaking their promises.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:33 pm 28. David W. Lincoln:As long as Kim Jong Il, and his crowd, want the gravy train to keep on running for themselves, regardless of the cost; anything is justifiable to
make sure the gravy train keeps on running.
I find it refreshing that the truth can be expressed succinctly.
Jun 21, 2009 - 7:37 pm 29. HonestJon:Just wait! Before long, the UN will break bad and go all “Spanish Inquisition” on North Korea. And you know what they say, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.” Bring out the COMFY CHAIR! Where are the soft pillows?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSe38dzJYkY&feature=related
regards
Jun 22, 2009 - 1:09 am 30. Gordon Chang:David W. Lincoln, you have expressed the truth succinctly. Thank you.
Jun 22, 2009 - 4:33 am 31. Gordon Chang:HonestJon, so far, the U.N has been amazingly tolerant of North Korea. But, yes, let’s bring on John Cleese. He can’t do any worse than the last three American presidents.
Jun 22, 2009 - 7:13 am 32. mehere:I know the Son of Kenya doesn’t understand, but the Norks will keep pushing and prodding until they get a reaction, just to see how far they can go before they scurry back into their holes and tell each other how great they are.
Trouble is, the more they test Telepromptus and get no reaction the more reckless they will get. Soon they will hardly fear his strongly-worded letters to the UN.
Jun 22, 2009 - 10:29 am 33. hangnail:Has anyone thought of torpedios?
Jun 22, 2009 - 3:46 pm 34. Gordon Chang:mehere, yes, we have no north Asia policy at the moment. And that is a large part of the reason why we are seeing provocations one after the other from North Korea. Thanks for your on-target comment.
Jun 22, 2009 - 5:42 pm 35. Gordon Chang:hangnail, no, at least not in Washington.
Jun 22, 2009 - 5:43 pm 36. Banned by Huffpo:It’s going to be fascinating when the Great Reconciler is running a hot war with North Korea, when four thousand GI’s are dying a month, instead of every eight years.
Oh my, what will Code Pink have to say about that??
Jun 22, 2009 - 5:56 pm 37. Gordon Chang:Banned by Huffpo, war with North Korea? In that case, I think we might need F-22s and all the other weapons that have been derided as “so Cold War.”
Jun 23, 2009 - 5:25 am 38. vivo:11. savage24:
“Are we going to be innocent people, ruled by a tyrant too?”
Now you know how a real president looks like and acts.
33. hangnail:
“Has anyone thought of torpedios?”
Do you think the military would reveal their options? They don’t read blogs, either.
36. Banned by Huffpo:
“It’s going to be fascinating when the Great Reconciler is running a hot war with North Korea,”
I bet you it’s going to be a short war: nuclear attacks. China will take over.
Jun 24, 2009 - 3:11 am