Shades of Kofi Annan saying he could “do business” with Saddam Hussein.
Now we have the U.S. envoy to the Six-Party Talks on North Korea, Chris Hill, chatting away on NPR about how in his work he can “rely” on the North Koreans.
Here’s a link to the broadcast, and below is a transcipt of the exchange in which Hill, spinning like an Iranian centrifuge, spells out his astounding piece of information:
NPR: Do you think you have found North Koreans you can look in the eye and trust?
Hill: Well, I think there are people we can talk to seriously, where we can lay out some ideas for how to go forward, where they will lay out some ideas, and we can rely on what they say, that they will do what they say. So, if that’s what you mean by trust, I guess there are.
Just who are these people? And what have they been telling Hill they will do?
Clearly he’s not talking about the North Koreans he’s actually been negotiating with, because they told him on Feb 13 that within 60 days North Korea would shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and disclose all its nuclear programs. The deadline is tomorrow, and none of that has happened. Instead, the main event has been Hill’s hustling to get back to Kim Jong Il some $25 million that had been frozen at the behest of the U.S. Treasury in Banco Delta Asia in Macau. Here’s my column today on that $25 million, and what might be called the State Department program for Plutonium in Our Time.
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4 Comments
1. Brian:I must have sleepwalked through this part of Morning Edition.
I’m appalled . . . during the entire first half of the interview, Mr. Hill appears to be scratching his head in bewilderment. He first believes that the NoKors won’t meet the deadline, which is fast approaching because there’s no indication they’ve invited the inspectors in.
And then, wrt to the $25 million bank issue, he notes that the NoKors won’t move ahead until it’s resolved. This puzzles him:
And then he goes on to say he can rely on what his negotiating (!) partners commit to!
It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
Brian
Apr 13, 2007 - 3:32 pm 2. Bloodthirsty Liberal:I hate to quote myself (well, not really), but we get the genocidal despots we deserve.
Bloodthirsty Liberal
Apr 13, 2007 - 5:07 pm 3. Tom Paine:I would like to see some serious reporting on what the administration believes that it is doing.
They must have a rationale. And the assumption that they’re just stupid strikes me as a big assumption that needs a bit more examination.
Apr 13, 2007 - 8:26 pm 4. Oscar:Related to UNDP “corrupted” activities in North Korea. If you would like to find real and relevant cases of corruption, investigate UNDP in Afghanistan.
Apr 16, 2007 - 12:25 pmEverything there is corruption, incompetence and favoritism. I am talking about hundreds of millions of US$ Dollars. Only in 2003, the UNDP Budget was more of 1 Billion US$ Dollars. Most of them, are, of course, … “missing”.