Richardson’s N. Korea visits yields nuke breakthrough

[bigtree]

04/10/2007

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s visit to North Korea appears to be yielding unexpected fruit.

Richardson, part of a bipartisan delegation dispatched to North Korea to return remains of U.S. MIAs, appears to have secured a concession from the communist state on its developing nuclear weapons program.

Monday, a North Korean nuclear arms negotiator relayed to Richardson that the country would be willing to allow international U.N. arms inspectors into the country if some $25 million in North Korean money that has been frozen is released.

On Tuesday, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill signaled from Tokyo the U.S. willingness to deal.

“What was positive coming out of Pyongyang (the North Korean capitol) yesterday is the report that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is prepared to take these actions to get the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in there, and take these first steps,” said Hill.

The North Koreans also told Richardson that it will be difficult to stop production at the country’s main nuclear reactor by Saturday, a pre-negotiated deadline. A State Department spokesman responded that the U.S. “might not object” to extending the deadline.

Richardson, a Democratic candidate of president, is expected to return to New Mexico on Friday.

http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=31553&cat=NMTOPSTORIES


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[mike_c]

1. the Bush administration will move quickly to f*ck up any potential...

...for diplomatic progress. Or just ignore it, which amounts to the same thing.

[Roland99]

9. It was the "Contract with America" Repukes that screwed the Clinton agreement in the 1st place!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. easily done. just send condi in.

that will squeak the wheel, toss sand in the gears, and shit in their kitchen right quick.

[Richard Steele]

2. That's a pretty huge breakthrough.

Allowing impartial, independant inspections, in return
for a measley 25 million? 25 mil that is actually already
theirs?

That's such a great deal, I can't help but worry
that someone from BushCabal™ will decide to derail it.

Just because they can.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Sounds, dare I say it, presidential

another line in an already impressive resume. Richardson remains the man to watch in the second tier.

[bigtree]

7. remarkably so

amazingly so

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. If you ask me he's first tier

and the other 3 are stealing his air time.

[BeyondGeography]

11. Could wind up that way

which is what makes the ballgame so interesting. ;)

[NewYorkerfromMass]

14. the cream does tend to rise to the top

at least as far as the Democrats go.

[bigtree]

16. to the top

[skipos]

4. I like Bill. Nice to see him trying to solve problems

while Bush tries to create them

[Eugene]

5. The breakthrough is that N. Korea finally got its $25 million.

Source: Reuters

N.Korea funds freed as nuclear deadline nears

By Jonathan Thatcher
58 minutes ago

SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday that Macau
authorities have unblocked funds in frozen North Korean accounts
and urged Pyongyang to work toward shutting down a nuclear
reactor by a weekend deadline.

The reclusive state has insisted it will only close the reactor,
which supplies it with weapons-grade plutonium, once $25 million
dollars in funds linked to North Korean interests and frozen since
2005 in Macau's Banco Delta Asia are freed.

-snip-

A Banco Delta Asia spokesperson said the relevant account holders
were free to do as they wished with the money.

"We'll be dealing with the money according to the requests of the
customers," said Joe Wong, a spokesperson for Banco Delta Asia.
"If we get approached by customers who want to take the money
out, they can do as they like."

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070410/pl_nm/korea_north_dc

[bigtree]

6. thanks for the update

[Blue_In_AK]

10. Excellent!

If this man isn't our next president, he should at the very least be Secretary of State. I love his diplomacy skills.

[Rainbowreflect]

13. He is moving to the front of the pack for me.

I think he would be popular with independent & moderate republicans.

[bigtree]

15. and they are judging this guy by how much money he's raised so far

as if he's had the time to grub around for it between his rescue missions of US foreign policy