Ex-President Clinton Has Some Advice on North Korea
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Thursday Washington should offer food and energy supplies to North Korea in return for access to its laboratories to help resolve a crisis over the North's nuclear programme.
''I think we ought to offer them a mega deal. Help with food, help with energy, help with becoming a self-sustaining economy... in return for total access to all the labs, all the sites, taking the plutonium rods out of North Korea altogether,'' Clinton told a business forum in Hong Kong.
''I don't believe that North Korea wants to drop a bomb on South Korea or Japan. I think what they want to do is eat and stay warm,'' Clinton said.
His comments come after Washington proposed suspending a project to build nuclear power stations in North Korea for a year to see what comes of diplomatic attempts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programmes.
The project is based on a 1994 pact agreed during Clinton's administration. Under that deal, the North Koreans agreed to freeze their nuclear arms programme in return for two light-water reactors, fuel oil shipments and food supplies.
Get the rest of the Clinton Plan for North Korea.
Matt's Chat
Giving stuff to North Korea worked SO well the first time...Mark's Remarks
Oh yeah, letting them have missile and computer technology worked so well the first time, and it really made them our friends, didn't it Bubba? Of course, what, do you think they will give you a brokering fee now, since you aren't running for re-election for them to funnel money into a campaign slushfund now? Give me a break.....While I think it is good to work things out without conflict, offering these guys some "mega deal" is ludicrous. It hasn't worked, it didn't work for Chamberlain vs. Hitler, it didn't work with JFK vs. USSR, and it won't work today.....
What advice is Bubba going to have next? Don't go after terrorist animals shooting at our soldiers unless you have a legal argument and search warrant and subpeona for them? Will he ask that we ask Osama to define what "jihad" means? Give me a break....This man was one of the worst Presidents in history in foreign affairs, and the reason we are having so much trouble today can be laid at his door...That, friends, is the true Clinton legacy.
