Plan B Forum

Ex-President Carter sends condolences to Kim Jong-un
By Victor Morton


December 21, 2011, 03:38PM


Former President Jimmy Carter has sent North Korea a message of condolence over the death of Kim Jong-il and wished "every success" to the man expected to take over as dictator, according to the communist country's state-run news agency.

A dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Mr. Carter sent the message to Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il's son and heir apparent.

"In the message Jimmy Carter extended condolences to Kim Jong Un and the Korean people over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il. He wished Kim Jong Un every success as he assumes his new responsibility of leadership, looking forward to another visit to [North Korea] in the future," the KCNA dispatch read.

When contacted by The Washington Times for comment, the Carter Center provided an email contact to a spokeswoman who is out of the office until the New Year.

North Korea is routinely labeled as one of the world's most oppressive governments under an eccentric personality cult surrounding the Kim family. Harrowing reports from defectors describe North Korea as a dirt-poor nation filled with concentration camps and Communist propaganda. Kim Jong-il ran the reclusive country according to a "military first" policy since the mid-1990s, after a famine that may have killed as many as 2 million people.

Mr. Carter has visited North Korea twice — including a 1994 visit for talks on nuclear issues that led to a deal in which North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear-weapons program in exchange for oil deliveries and the construction of two nuclear reactors. That deal collapsed in 2002.

The former U.S. president also downplayed a 2010 North Korean attack on a South Korean island and disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility, saying the acts were merely "designed to remind the world that they deserve respect in negotiations that will shape their future."....[what a stupid @ss, I'm sure he would've like it better if Soeul had been shelled!]

Old "Mr. Peanut"....the gift that keeps on giving.

Bill Clinton’s political charm managed to extend even to chilly Pyongyang. The former president’s administration convinced Kim to forgo his nuclear program—at least for a little while—in exchange for food aid. Of course, the détente between the two countries didn’t last long. But Clinton’s sway over Kim wasn’t totally dead. In 2009 Clinton secured the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, stuck in a North Korean prison. How did he convince the star-struck dictator to turn over the Americans? Decades before, when Kim’s father died, Clinton was the first person to reach out to console the grieving Dear Leader. Kim apparently told Clinton: “I’ve always remembered that, and I’ve always respected you for that, and I’ve always wanted to meet you.”

(AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service, File)

rubato wrote:Multiple amphibians who cannot, obviously, read are attempting to comment on the writing of someone who is the best President-diplomat since FDR.

Well they can't exactly admit the shortcomings that they are not even aware of, can they?

yrs,
rubato

rubato wrote:Multiple amphibians who cannot... blah blah blah, incredibly stupid statement about TIC, blah, blah, blah