In a Monday interview with Good Morning America, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the astonishingly naive statement that the North Koreans “don’t pose a threat to us.”
24 hours later, after arriving in Bangkok, Thailand, Clinton reversed course expressing concern about military cooperation between North Korea and Myanmar.
The New York Times reports (emphasis added):
North Korea is already suspected of supplying Myanmar with small arms and ammunition, but analysts contend that North Korea is also helping Myanmar pursue a nuclear weapons program. They cite as possible evidence newly published photos circulated by Burmese dissident groups of what some analysts assert are a network of giant tunnels outside Myanmar’s jungle capital, Naypyidaw, built with help from North Korean engineers.
Mrs. Clinton did not say whether the Obama administration shares suspicions about any nuclear cooperation. But another senior administration official said the United States had not discounted the possibility. “North Korea has a history of proliferating,” said the [senior administration] official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because only Mrs. Clinton was authorized to speak publicly in advance of the conference.
So, let me get this straight…North Korea–that weird hermit country north of Seoul whose leader likes perms and kidnapping Japanese citizens–isn’t really a threat to the good ole USA…even though they are known proliferators of…you know…weapons of mass destruction and there appears to be clear evidence that they are helping other nations (nations unfriendly to the United States) pursue nuclear programs. Ok, got it.
But don’t worry, it looks like Mrs. Clinton has some tricks up her sleeve–more of the same old pay-offs and UN resolutions. The Times article goes on:
“There are obviously a list of incentives, offers that could be made if the North Koreans evidence any willingness to take a different path,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference here, after arriving from New Delhi. “As of this moment in time, we haven’t seen that evidence.”
The administration’s decision to broach the possibility of incentives, officials said, will make it easier to persuade countries like China, which have previously resisted sanctions against North Korea, from agreeing to implement the tougher measures in the United Nations resolution.
And if that doesn’t work, she can always dispatch good ole Madeleine Albright with a case of Veuve Clicquot …