[imText1]The majority of policy makers who once supported the Bush Administration’s foreign policy in its first term as well agreeing to the former Administration’s stance against North Korea have finally left office in criticism.
Robert Joseph, now former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, resigned his position in February and in an interview with the New York Times on the 21st, clearly stated that he did not support President Bush’s North Korea policy.
Secretary Joseph said that the North Korea policy was merely prolonging the life of the Kim Jong Il regime and believed that a more effective method would be to continue pressurizing the regime.
He said that endorsing pressure was one of the basic fundamentals for the success of foreign diplomacy and criticized the Bush Administration’s negotiation strategy which fixated on talks with North Korea.
The newspaper informed that Secretary Joseph had declined to publicly discuss his reasons for resignation but did report that “he simply could not abide the new agreement with North Korea that the Bush administration struck in February.”
“He is among the last of the hawks to turn off the lights and walk away from an administration,” the newspaper reported and highlighted that the Secretary had opposed the idea of suspending investigations regarding North Korea’s illegal funds for the progress of the talks, last fall.
[imText2]The International Herald Tribune also published a similar report, this time by former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, a politician renown for his outspoken mind, who criticized the U.S. government for releasing North Korea’s funds caught in BDA.
The newspaper reported that Mr. Bolton had made an unofficial speech at the Hudson Institute on the 20th where he said that the U.S. government had made ‘a mistake’ in its decision to release the funds and that there was little hope guaranteeing China’s role in ensuring that North Korea would use the money released for humanitarian purposes.
Former Ambassador Bolton said that the reserved six-party talks stance, over when to release the funds was a sign that they were following through Pyongyang’s negotiating strategies and that the tactics, “agonize over a deal, sign it, then start reneging” was being reused again.
He said, “I think Iran’s record is clear that they’re never going to give up the pursuit of uranium enrichment” and elucidated that North Korea would be the same.
