25 Feb 2003
Let's see, we made a deal to provide food and other aid in exchange for them abandoning a nuclear program. They took the food and built the nukes anyway. We found out and stopped sending food. They threatened war. South Korea recommends more aid to solve the problem. We hear a lot about how we need to understand them. When is someone going to try to understand us?
If you're a superpower, no one wants to see you demonstrate much freedom to move around internationally. The North Koreans, with Jimmy Carter helping us out, agreed to stop development of nuclear weapons in exchange for food and non-nuclear power plants. We set up the plants, and gave them, according to some reports, over $600 million dollars in food. Apparently, they needed more food than that because they secretly continued the development and recently announced that they have nukes. Since it broke our deal, we stopped shipping them food.
They claimed that we were breaking the deal (the one that they had never kept) so they were going to break the deal more. From what I hear, it really is about feeding people. And that's where I get confused. Why don't China and Japan, who are in easy reach of missiles from NKor, just send them the food? Because old Uncle Sam will send them food with american tax dollars and we won't have to? North Korea is claiming that they won't negotiate with anyone else. We're insisting that everyone is involved, and that a lasting agreement should be worked out by everyone.
And what really bugs me is that people tell me that it's really important for me to understand the North Koreans. I agree with that, but isn't that a knife that cuts both ways? I mean, don't the North Koreans need to learn to understand us?
If they need more food, they can ask for it. The worst way to deal with the US is to break a deal. We are a nation of people who stick zealously to the protocol of keeping your agreements. I want to say this carefully - we break our word all the time. But we always have a ready excuse to offer as a defense. The North Koreans are making us angry because they aren't making an effort to come up with a better excuse.
I've heard that "strident rhetoric" is de jour for the NKor, that they talk like that all the time. Well, Americans believe that people mean what they say. We only get strident when we want to emphasize our story. Getting strident and escalating a disagreement is not something that we ignore as we would a mime in the streets.
If you want us to give you something, you should take off your hat and speak humbly and politely. That's how we ask each other for favors. Any other approach usually gets a polite "No" from americans.
If every country decided to threaten war and nuclear proliferation, and the US paid blackmail to avoid it, our citizens would soon find themselves working for every tin pot dictator on earth. Like we said a long time ago, "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
The time has not yet come when totalitarian regimes can demand american support and aid.
© 2003 Beau Sharbrough