Say NO to Bilateral Talks

Stop the press, the Democrats are on the offensive against George Bush. Every Democrat within camera shot is now calling for bilateral talks with North Korea to defuse the current situation. The Bush administration, to their credit, are sticking to the six party talks.

Now, the average Joe on the street may say, "What's wrong with talking to North Korea one-on-one?". The answer is EVERYTHING. First of all, lets talk about North Korea's record on agreements made in 1994 in Geneva:

(1) North Korea would freeze it's existing nuclear program and agree to enhanced IAEA safeguards
(2) The US would replace North Korea's graphite-moderated reactors with a Light Water Reactor (US taxpayer money well spent)
(3) Both countries would move toward full mobilization of political and economic relations
(4) Both sides would work together for peace and stability on a nuclear free Korean peninsula

Not the best track record given the current situation, but it highlights the dangers of bilateral talks. When people talk about bilateral talks, they merely mean direct negotiations between North Korea and the United States. The key word being negotiations. If the United States sits down directly with North Korea, we will have to meet them somewhere in the middle for anything to get done. The very nature of negotiating demands concessions be made on both sides in order to come to an agreed framework. This would be giving in to nuclear blackmail, and it would be the wrong thing to do...

So why would so many Democrats be calling for bilateral talks? Because Democrats cannot protect America. Perhaps they would like to build the North Koreans more nuclear reactors with US taxpayer money. After all, that's what Bill Clinton did. I'm still sickened when I think of the images of then Secretary of State Madeline Albright dancing with the murderous dictator, Kim Jong-il and presenting him with an autographed basketball by Michael Jordan. American diplomacy at it's finest...

The answer to this crisis is decisive military action with the goal of regime change and a UN mission to feed the starving North Korean people in the aftermath. As I noted would happen on my blog earlier this week, China has indeed taken the bite out of any security council resolution by taking away the provisions for ensuring North Korea doesn't export it's nuclear weapons. That means nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists. I pray that President Bush lives up to his announcement yesterday that America will not stand for a nuclear North Korea. To do this, Americans need to stand by the President in saying NO to bilateral talks.