EU Offers Appeasement to North Korea

In an opinion piece for the Japan Times in its March 17^th edition, Pyongyang under EU's wing Glyn Ford and Soyoung Kwon write about a "new independent stance on foreign policy issues" that looks a lot like an old stance. The DPRK is to be punished for developing nuclear weapons in violation of every agreement and treaty that it haws signed with free oil. That's right;

Reflecting this new stance, the European Parliament this week passed a comprehensive resolution on the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and nuclear arms in North Korea and Iran:

It urges the resumption of the supply of heavy fuel oil (HFO) to North Korea in exchange for a verified freeze of the Yongbyong heavy-water reactor, which is capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, to avoid a further deterioration in the situation. At the same time it is calling for the European Council and Commission to offer to pay for these HFO supplies [emphasis mine - ed.].

It urges the Council of Ministers to reconsider paying 4 million Euros of the suspension costs for KEDO (the Korea Energy Development Organization) to South Korea to ensure the continued existence of an organization that could play a key role in delivering energy supplies during a settlement process [emphasis mine - ed.].

Although Kim Jong Il has openly admitted to possession of nuclear weapons, this is not enough for the EU;

The EP cannot substantiate U.S. allegations that North Korea has an HEU (highly enriched uranium) program or that North Korea provided HEU to Libya. It has called for its Foreign Affairs Committee to hold a public hearing to evaluate the evidence. "Once bitten, twice shy" is the consequence of U.S. claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. [claims which, it now appears, were true - ed.]

And of course, the required European sneer at current American leadership. Japan and the United States are the bad guys, and note the sneering reference to neocons;

In Japan, opinion is split by hardliners in the Liberal Democratic Party who view problems with North Korea as a convenient excuse to justify the abandonment of the Peace Constitution. They don't want a quick solution until crisis has catalyzed the transformation of Japan into what advocates call a "normal" country. [and why shouldn't Japan have a Constitution that she has written herself? - ed.]

The U.S. expects an EU financial commitment, but not EU participation. The neocons believe that EU participation would change the balance of forces within the talks inexorably toward critical engagement rather than confrontation.

The question is whether the EU's offer will point the U.S. into a corner or trigger a breakthrough. [Notice, the U.S. into a corner or a breakthrough by the EU. It assumes no chance of success by the U.S. and Japan in making the DPRK live up to its agreements - ed.] Will U.S. fundamentalists outmaneuver the realists who favor a diplomatic rather than military solution? Only time will tell.

What time will tell is - the Left™ will never understand that appeasement does not work. These are the same people who cannot see that the President's actions in Central Asian are causing people to stand up and demand freedom from their oppressors. These people loved Saddam Hussein, they love Bashir Assad, they loved the terrorists Arafat, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, "Dr." Rantisi, they love Hezbollah. To the Left™ these monsters are heros and their defeat is to be lamented.

So, who are these writers?

Glyn Ford, a Labour Party member of the European Parliament (representing South West England), belongs to the EP's Korean Peninsula Delegation. Soyoung Kwon is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Asia-Pacific Research Center.

Yep, leftists™.