Korea is getting how much US aid?!!

[slowerthenb4]

"The United States intends to provide the DPRK with 500,000 metric tons in food commodities over the course of a 12-month program beginning in June 2008, with the World Food Program (WFP) to distribute approximately 400,000 tons and U.S. NGOs approximately 100,000 tons. The United States and the DPRK have agreed on a framework to allow WFP and NGO staff broad geographic access to populations in need and the ability to effectively monitor the distribution of U.S. commodities. The food aid will come from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. The exact commodity mix and delivery schedules will be based on the outcome of a joint needs assessment to be conducted in coming weeks."

Money money money money.

I guess it is cool to feed the starving people of N Korea on the American dime... unrelated, I wonder if a republican would generally be that generous to an irate, angry bum demanding money outside the subway?

they better be super fucking grateful...assholes.

USAID Press Release

[ManlyMan97]

They better be grateful. I remember hearing that U.S. sold millions of dollars of weapons to Iraq.

[marchohare]

ManlyMan97 "I remember hearing that U.S. sold millions of dollars of weapons to Iraq."

We did. That was when Saddam Hussein was our good buddy.

Yes, Saddam was our good buddy. Iranian students had seized our embassy and taken hostages. They never hurt the hostages, they just held them for a long time. Iranians were all pissed off about us backing their former ruler, Shah Pahlavi, just because he tortured them and stuff. They didn't seem to understand why the U.S. would support a guy like that, and they kind of went off their nut when we gave him asylum in the U.S. because he was sick.

So anyway, those flag-burning Iranian dancing towel-heads were being unreasonably pissy, and right next door in Iraq Saddam Hussein was all pissed at them. Saddam didn't like their new ruler, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that they had picked themselves. Neither did we. Saddam of course was a right brutal bastard but since the enemy of our enemy is our friend Saddam was our friend so we gave him all sorts of neat toys like chemical weapons that he used against those anti-American flag-burning Shah-haters in Iran.

And that's how we knew he had weapons of mass destruction because we had given them to him except chemical weapons don't last forever and by 2003 they were way past their expiration date so he had gotten rid of them.

We are humanitarians here in the U.S. and when someone is a brutal torturing dictator we care very very much about removing him from power except when we don't.

See Manuel Noriega for a similar case of U.S. schizophrenia.

[slowerthenb4]

Was it not like two months ago they were firing a test ICBM over japan into our pacific territory? Is this a "be good" bribe or did the political waters genuinely warm to the west?

China seems to be doing a lot of diplomatic foot work as a mediator on behalf of the US lately. Both Korea and Iran seem receptive to chinas input. I wonder what why that is?

Korea is at least allowing international oversight organizations to oversee their nuclear programs so i guess we cant argue with the recent diplomatic successes.

[LordJaric]

Hopefully they become a little more open now.

[polska322]

they better be super fucking grateful...assholes.

they will be as soon as kim jogn il is removed from power the propaganda is removed from the minds of N koreans (did you know they teach that america started the holocaust?) and we question government officials to learn how to tell the difference between the government funded N korean counterfeit money and US money, then completely resupply the country.

that orwe could blow them up, cons: many people die pros: no one has to pay for the supplies a country needs because it cant even support itself due to an unstable government

fact: sadam hussen's son used the iron maiden to punish soccer players who performed poorly

[xxSarenxx]

Well i guess we are helping the world now.... i mean cuba can be a vacation spot soon since the dictator there stepped down out of power

fact: Suddams sons use to put people in those things that you put trees into to cut them up if they cheated in a game of cards

[polska322]

At 7/3/08 02:55 PM, xxSarenxx wrote: Well i guess we are helping the world now.... i mean cuba can be a vacation spot soon since the dictator there stepped down out of power

fact: Suddams sons use to put people in those things that you put trees into to cut them up if they cheated in a game of cards

CASTRO STEPPED OUT OF POWER? THANK GOD!!FUCKING THANK GOD

fact:castro did give the freedom he promised after the revolution, it lasted a full 2 days before the government was re assembled and remodeled by castro.

[slowerthenb4]

Castro stopped being a threat when the iron curtain imploded. He stepped down as president in February 2008 in favor of his younger brother Raul Castro who is now the president, but they still remain a communist state.

Kim Jong Il did try to counterfeit US money!!! i had forgotten about that, it was a big stink that he had the same machines the US mint uses! slimy monkey.

________________________________________

- - It test-fired ballistic missiles in July 2006 and conducted a nuclear test in October 2006.

- - Returned to the Six-Party Talks in December 2006 and subsequently signed two agreements on denuclearization.

- - The 13 February 2007 Initial Actions Agreement shut down the North's nuclear facilities at Yongbyon in July 2007.

- - In the 3 October 2007 Second Phase Actions Agreement, Pyongyang pledged to disable those facilities and provide a correct and complete declaration of its nuclear programs.

- - Under the supervision of US nuclear experts, North Korean personnel completed a number of agreed-upon disablement actions at the three core facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear complex by the end of 2007.

- - Subsequently they have begun the discharge of spent fuel rods on December 2007, but then did not provide a declaration of its nuclear programs before the end of the 2007.

[TheMason]

In the realm of international relations (IR) a policy maker basically have only three options to deal with a "rogue nation":

1) Engagement: This is based upon classical liberal (not the modern ideology of the Democrats) thought of free markets and expanding democracy peacefully. Under this theory increasing the economy of Iran will provide the incentive not to take a belligerent stance towards Western powers.

2) Sanctions: If sanctions are put in place to effect regime change, they are going to fail. My dissertation committe chairman is known for his research in this area. Simply put, they effect regime change about zero percent of the time. They are only effective if they are short-lived and targeted towards a specific policy. Then they are effective 50% of the time, the other 50% of the time the sanctioner experiences a painful "blowback" effect.

3) War: The last resort. In N. Korea I'm fairly certain that US and ROK (S. Korea) forces will get an intial, painful ass kicking. They have an exceptionally advanced biological weapons program (which many tend to overlook). We don't really know what they have in regards to nukes (a mushroom cloud in Missouri is NOT a good way of finding out that they have successfully mated a warhead to a Taepodong II three stage missile. Finally, our military and civilian population has been strained by a two-front war. So this is not an option.

So can anyone guess how I feel about food aid to the DPRK?

The Great North Korean Famine is an informative (but kindof dense) book written by a former US Army intel officer turned humanitarian. He has worked in N. Korea delivering food aid in the mid 1990s when drought-induced famines killed an estimated 1-3 million N. Korean peasants/political undesirables. The main point: Don't play politics with hunger. If we want to maintain peace on the penninsula and improve the life of average N. Koreans, we need to have a policy orientated towards political and economic engagement.

Food aid is a good thing.

[EKublai]

N Korea reminds me of a midget with small man's complex.... except it turned out he was actually a fragile, impoverished, famished baby.....

:great now I feel guilty