Saturday 28 April 2018

Beware The West's Promises To North Korea

It was great to see the North and South Koreans sitting down together, there were even a few smiles and the two leaders even took part in that strange hand holding thing that male politicians now seem to do.
The fly in the ointment though could be the clumsy oaf about to enter the fray in the rotund shape of Donald Trump who is due to meet Kim Jong Un soon for discussions including the nuclear arsenal that North Korea were threatening to give the American people a close up view of only a few short months ago. 
If Trump thinks he is going to get North Korea to give up the nukes with a guarantee of security, the loosening of sanctions and improved relations then he had better hope that Kim hasn't been paying attention to America's promises over the last decade or so because the fate of Libya and Colonel Gadaffi should be foremost in the North Koreans mind.
Libya had all the materials needed to make nuclear bombs, the centrifuges, weapons designs, and fissile material but the Colonel gave up it's nuclear program in 2003, after promises from the U.S. and the UK that sanctions would be lifted, relations with the West would be improved and he was given a guarantee of security.
Just 8 years later, he was on the end of a US and UK led invasion which ended with him being dragged from a drainage pipe and shot by the West's allies.
Now Trump is due to offer the current ruler of North Korea the same deal in exchange for him giving up the nuclear deterrent that he currently holds in exchange for foreign aid, security guarantees and diplomatic relations with Washington but this familiar disarmament package can hardly look promising to Kim after Gadaffi. 
The best deal would be for the discussions and any deals to be led by South Korea who are most in danger from its Northern neighbour because the promises from the West, and mostly America, are not always worth the paper they are written on.

No comments: