"How did it come to pass that an opposition's measure of a president's foreign policy was all or nothing, success or "failure"? The answer is that the political absolutism now normal in Washington arrived at the moment--Nov. 7, 2000--that our politics subordinated even a war against terror to seizing the office of the presidency." - Daniel Henninger - WSJ 11/18/05
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"the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts." - George Orwell
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North Korea has finally received the $25 million frozen in Macao’s Banco Delta Asia that it “demanded” prior to its following through on the February 13th agreement to dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear plant.
There should still remain concerns as it is unlikely North Korea will discontinue its illegal activities, such as counterfeiting money and cigarettes, drug traffic and illegal weapons sales, as it has proved so lucrative. It will likely (hopefully) continue to have banking difficulties based upon the U.S. Treasury working group Illicit Activities Initiative, which tracked the North’s illegal activities. It was this investigation that led to the U.S. Treasury finding Macao’s Banco Delta Asia a “primary money laundering concern.” No international banking member wants to be labeled as such, so Kim will have a tough time of things.
The U.N.s IAEA will now meet with North Korea to discuss “a timetable for shutting down the reactor and technical details of monitoring and verification.” The IAEA and the North “have bickered over how much access the agency should have to nuclear facilities and data in the isolated country” ever since the revelation of the North’s illicit nuclear weapons program. So, they will negotiate to discuss, talk, and agree about discussing, talking and agreeing so to speak…make sense? That’s U.N. diplo-speak at its finest.
Further “North Korea said it would use the released money ‘“for improving the standard of people’s living and humanitarian purposes,”’ as the United States demanded.” Uhn huhn…ok.
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