[Mb-civic] China may have just saved our life

[Jef Bek]

Have you noticed over time an increase in xenophobia in the press over
China. Every day, it seems there's an article about how China's economy is
destroying ours or China is building up it's military at an alarming rate
(nothing taking the angle that, while our cowboy president is busy playing
war games and thumping his personal copy of the bible that god himself gave
him, China is busy being inspired by the global-technological and economical
possibilities. A few days ago, I heard Lou Dobbs of CNN gleefully refer to
China as Communist China and smile as he said it over and over again as if
we all share his irrelevant Reagan-era disdain.

Well, as Kim Jong Il and Bush have shown that they are both ridiculous and
dangerous leaders, China is hosting and drafting a plan to stabilize a
dangerous situation. Who knows, imagine where it may have gone. Some of us
believe that George fantasizes of a time when he will sit at the feet of God
for all of eternity and say "See, oh great Father, I'm the one who made your
book of revelations into a reality"

Uh, Lou Dobbs? ... America? Listen up... China may have just saved our life!


Chinese draft at centre of North Korea nuclear talks

Sat Jul 30, 2005 11:02 PM BST


By Brian Rhoads and Teruaki Ueno

BEIJING (Reuters) - Six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear crisis enter a
sixth day on Sunday after several delegates, including the chief U.S.
negotiator, responded positively to a draft submitted by their Chinese
hosts.

Lower-ranking deputies would try to reach agreement on a joint statement
that has eluded negotiators for nearly three years.

Diplomats stressed that progress at the talks, with no end date set, would
be slow. On Saturday they spent the afternoon reviewing the draft statement
put forward by China.

U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill said late on Saturday: "I think in
our view, the Chinese text represents a good basis for further negotiations
and further discussion."

He gave no further details but added: "It's hard to tell about progress
until you actually have an agreement."

However, he said it was difficult to say when the final text would be
produced.

With the United States and North Korea still far apart on the critical issue
of what comes first, security guarantees and aid from Washington or the
dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programmes, no document was
likely to contain much in the way of ground-breaking commitments.

A Japanese delegate said: "Of course we cannot reach an agreement
immediately. But the draft document presented by China will serve as a basis
for discussion."

He added: "Basic differences in views among the parties concerned remain. I
believe our country and other countries as well want to narrow the
differences and produce substantive results in the process of drafting."

The envoy said: "It is important for us to secure commitments from North
Korea to dismantling its nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons programmes."

Having a statement at all agreed by the two Koreas, the United States,
Russia, Japan and China would mark a breakthrough for the Beijing talks
where past progress has been measured by whether they could agree even to
return to the table.

CHICKEN-AND-EGG DEBATE

It turns on what the negotiators call sequencing, the chicken-and-egg debate
on which steps should come first.

North Korea wants aid, security gains and diplomatic recognition and an end
to U.S. hostility before starting to take apart its nuclear programmes. The
United States wants it the other way round.

Washington also demands full and verifiable destruction of Pyongyang's
weapons programmes, which intelligence sources say have produced enough
enriched plutonium for up to nine nuclear bombs, before any aid or
guarantees materialise.

After a hiatus of more than a year, this fourth round of talks since the
crisis erupted in October 2002 has been marked by unprecedented bilateral
contact between the United States and North Korea.

The two protagonists have held six meetings in the past six days lasting
anywhere from 75 minutes to three hours and sought to outline clearly their
stances and differences. In the past such encounters were rare, brief and
adhered to pre-written scripts.

Some diplomats were hoping a possible breakthrough on a statement could come
on Monday.

"It is not impossible to finalise the joint document on Monday. But it may
take longer," a diplomatic source close to the six-party talks said.

The atmosphere has been far more cordial than in the early days of the
administration of George W. Bush, when the president labelled North Korea
part of an "axis of evil" alongside Iran and pre-war Iraq, or even than
early this year when his secretary of state called Pyongyang an "outpost of
tyranny".

For its part, the North Korean delegation, which in the past has called
rapidly scheduled news conferences to denounce hostile U.S. policy, has kept
quiet.

Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency, which has been known to
fire rhetorical broadsides at Washington during past rounds, has focused
most of its ire on Japan, its hated former colonial master.