| Home page To receive this publication via e-mail, click here. THE NORTH KOREA REPORT: FEBRUARY 23, 2004 Listen to the Chinascope, hosted by D.J. McGuire: Tuesday midnight EST or Wednesday 2PM EST (tape delay), on WXEI 95.3 FM in Crestview, FL, or here. Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror is now available: here, at Amazon, or at 1-888-280-7715. Our statement on why northern Korea must be liberated can be found here. TOP STORY: U.S. WILL BE HAPPY IF STALINISTS �DON�T WALK OUT� OF TALKS COMMUNIST CHINA SAYS NK READY TO SCRAP NUKE PROGRAM, WE THINK The Bush Administration has now decided that for the upcoming six-way talks on North Korea�s nuclear weapons �the criteria for success is that the North Koreans don't walk out� (Washington Post). Thus, not only can the Stalinist regime pursue their nuclear weapons development, it can do with impunity so long as it agrees to keep talking. The North already has a few nuclear weapons, and is pursuing more in the plutonium and uranium fields. It admitted to the uranium program in 2002, ending the 1994 agreement in which the regime won millions of dollars in fuel oil and two partially built nuclear power plants in exchange for a promise to �freeze� its nuke program (see 10/21/02 NKR). Despite the fact that President Bush himself has placed North Korea in the axis of evil (see 1/30/02 Update), not a single Administration official has publicly called for the liberation of the people of northern Korea, nor for any actions against Communist China for the behavior of its satellite state. The talks begin Wednesday (Voice of America via Epoch Times, HK). Communist China, meanwhile, claimed that their longtime Stalinist ally is ready to ��freeze all of its nuclear activities as a step� toward total abolition� (BBC). However, �It was not clear whether Pyongyang was referring to just the plutonium programme, or also to the alleged uranium programme.� The North is now denying its uranium admission. URANIUM PROGRAM STILL IN DISPUTE; SOUTH KOREA PUSHING SOFT LINE On the American side, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton ripped North Korea for the denial, saying, �the US commitment to a peaceful solution could be subverted if North Korea continued to deny� (BBC) the uranium program. Also reporting: Cybercast News South Korea is pushing a softer line, such as �exchanging multilateral security assurances of a temporary freeze of �all nuclear programs�� (Washington Post). The South is not keen on the U.S. forcing the North to repeat its uranium admission. South Korea�s Foreign Minister said he expected a �positive outcome� (CNN 2/18) from the talks. Be afraid; be very afraid. Meanwhile, at the end of last week, the North, according to an unnamed senior South Korean official, �recently told the government of a third country that it is willing to discuss the HEU (highly enriched uranium) issue with the United States.� This has, of course, allowed the Stalinists to conveniently, for them, move the plutonium weapons off the radar. Stop the North Korean Nuclear Power Plants: Construction on the nuclear power plants from the 1994 agreement has been suspended for one year, but the plants have not been cancelled. Use this China e-Lobby fact sheet and tell the President to kill the power plants from the 1994 agreement that North Korea broke. OTHER AMERICAN-RELATED NEWS KERRY CRITICIZES BUSH ON NORTH KOREA � HE�S MORE DOVISH Falling in line with nearly every other Democrat running for president, Senator John Kerry told Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that �I would never have cut off the negotiations of bilateral discussion with North Korea� (The New Republic). Kerry never mentioned liberation; no Democrat has (but then, neither has President Bush). OTHER NEWS ON COMMUNIST CHINA�S ROLE BOLTON PRAISES COMMUNIST CHINA FOR SUPPOSED HELP ON NORTH KOREA John R. Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, and previously one of the more clear-eyed officials in the department, drank the kool-aid on Communist China, saying it was helpful in bringing an end to North Korea�s nuclear weapons program, despite the fact that no progress has actually been made (Washington Post). However, Bolton could not get Communist China to join the Proliferation Security Initiative, (PSI) an international consortium designed to stop rogue states from acquiring or dealing weapons of mass destruction. North Korea is the PSI�s biggest target (Financial Times, UK). The PSI includes Australia, Great Britain, the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and Singapore. HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNAL NEWS KIM JONG-IL SEEMS TO HAVE PICKED HIS SUCCESSOR Kim Jong-il appears to have chosun Kim Jong-un, his son by Ko Yong-hui, to succeed him, according to Parapundit (founder Randall Parker has been a member since 2003). COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS FRANK GAFFNEY, JR., CALLS FOR LIBERATION The head of the Center for Security Policy calls it �rollback,� in honor of the Reagan Administration�s Cold War I policy, but it�s the same thing: �aimed at containing and ending this blight.� Gaffney�s Washington Times column is one of the best to date detailing why any deal with the Stalinist regime is flat out wrong, and why liberation is necessary. Christopher Lamb and James J. Przystup, of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, call for the U.S. and South Korea to make defense plans should North Korea refuse to end its nuclear ambitions, in the Washington Times. ON THE PROLIFERATION SECURITY INITITATIVE Helle Dale, Washington Times, praises the one good piece of President Bush�s North Korea policy morass: the multinational anti-NK Proliferation Security Initiative. Check out the Communist China and the Terrorist War page. 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