Don't fault Bush for N. Korea
September 14, 2004

The explosion that shook North Korea over the weekend led almost immediately and perhaps inevitably to an attack in this country. Within hours, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry figured out a way to blame President Bush and his administration for whatever is going on in Asia.

It is Kerry's contention that Bush, obsessed with Iraq, ignored developments on the Korean peninsula and must therefore bear responsibility for the continuing antics of the lunatic who runs North Korea. The contention is ludicrous given our dealings with North Korea during the Clinton years. It was then that President Bill Clinton decided, with the connivance of former President Jimmy Carter, that the way to Kim Jong Il's heart was free oil.

During Clinton's watch, we sent North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of oil as part of a naive and foolhardy attempt to change that nation's behavior. Kim said he needed nuclear reactors to supply power for his people, but the reactors he had were capable of producing the material needed to build thermonuclear bombs.

Clinton decided that if the United States gave North Korea oil and promised help to build reactors that wouldn't generate thermonuclear material, Kim's energy problem would be solved and the world would be a safer place.

The problem was that the success of the scheme depended on accepting Kim as a basically well-meaning national leader who tells the truth, cares about his people, wants peace and can be trusted. Clinton, Carter and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were possibly the only three people in the world willing to do that. Most everyone else recognized Kim as a madman who cares not a whit for the people he rules and seems incapable of dealing forthrightly with anyone.

Still, while Kim may be crazy, he's no fool. He knew a sucker when he saw one, accepted the oil and went right on doing what he'd intended to do all along. He built himself a bomb and now has as many as half a dozen to hold, use or sell. We stood by and let this happen in the '90s and at the same time watched him build and test missiles capable of carrying the bombs we were praying he wasn't developing. As a result, he is in a position to threaten his neighbors and the western United States.

How this is Bush's fault is beyond me. When Bush declared North Korea a part of the "axis of evil," he did so precisely because of the threat Clinton ignored. Bush knew that if terrorists like Osama bin Laden ever acquire nuclear weapons, they are likely to be labeled "Made in North Korea," since Kim himself has bragged that he intends to sell at least some of his bombs to whoever may have a use for them.

The problem Bush faced was not of his making, and it was certainly not his "obsession" with Iraq that prevented him from eliminating the North Korean threat. Our pre-emptive strike against Iraq was based on our belief that Iraq had chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction and was well on the way to going nuclear. Our troops went in knowing that Saddam Hussein might use what he had against them but secure in the knowledge that he couldn't launch a full strike against us at the time we launched our assault. The fear was that if we waited, the window of opportunity allowing us to strike would close and we'd be forced to deal with a truly dangerous rogue state.

North Korea is that rogue state. Given the resources at its disposal, going after Kim militarily would make Iraq look like a walk in the park. Had Bush nevertheless moved to take Kim out, Kerry would be blasting the president as irresponsible and Democrats would be in the streets protesting another Asian war. It is disingenuous to assert that while Bush should not have acted against a Middle East madman, he should have against an Asian, or that his obsession with one prevented him from going after the other.

Perhaps Kerry actually believes that he could sit down with Kim and come up with an agreement that decades of presidents have failed to get. After all, Kerry promises that if we just elect him, France and other nations who oppose us now will jump at the chance to help America in Iraq. Maybe he also believes that he can soothe the madman who rules North Korea.

It would be interesting but very dangerous to let Kerry try.

 

Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, is a managing associate with Carmen Group, a D.C.-based governmental-affairs firm (www.carmengrouplobbying.com).