Beginning Round #27

We gain nothing of any substance from this twenty-sixth agreement with the Kim regime, which will be riven by them just like all twenty-five of its predecessors, and the NoKos and Red Chinese gain breathing room for the rogue regime's next round of nuclearization and consequent sabre-rattling and mischief-making. Only next time their nukes won't fizzle - and won't be tested inside a cave, but on Tokyo or Seattle.

-Me, 6/27/08

It's barely taken two months for the NoKos to start reneging on this latest "historic breakthrough for peace and triumph of multilateral diplomacy." My only question is, what took 'em so long?:

Before workers began moving mothballed equipment back into place, North Korea informed U.S. personnel at its Yongbyon nuclear plant it would start reassembling its nuclear facilities, a South Korean official said Thursday.

Pyongyang gave the notification Tuesday to U.S. personnel stationed at the North's Yongbyon nuclear plant and started moving some equipment, taken apart from plutonium-producing facilities, out of storage Wednesday, said a Foreign Ministry official.

"They were moving some equipment" to the original sites, said the official, citing information provided by the United States. But he did not say what the equipment was. The official spoke on condition of anonymity citing the issue's sensitivity.

Well, now, THAT's brazen, isn't it? They're deep-sixing the "disarmament agreement" and moving to restore Yongbyon to fully operational status right in front of us - oh, sorry, the FIVE of "us" (US, Japan, South Korea, Red [haha] China, and Russia [hahahaha]) - and all but smirkingly flipping us the bird while they do it.

And "our" reaction? Do you have to ask?:

"This is a clear violation of a six-party agreement," he said, referring to a disarmament pact that the North reached with the U.S. and four other nations last year. The official said Seoul would try to persuade Pyongyang to reverse its action.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Japan is in close contact with the U.S. and South Korea on the development.

"We are aware that (North Korea) is engaged in an activity to remove some of the key equipment out of the storage, and we are concerned about the situation," he said.

OOOOH. The Japanese are "concerned". The SoKos will "try to persuade" their northern counterparts to "reverse their action." Well, THAT ought to put the fear of God into Kim jong-iL. Heaven knows we won't:

The U.S. played down Pyongyang's latest step. "Based on what we know from the reports on the ground, you don't have an effort to reconstruct, reintegrate this equipment back into the facility," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Foggy Bottom's spin is that this latest move is only a negotiating tactic meant to pressure Washington to keep its promise to take Pyongyang off the terror list. They cite in support of this "hopeful" conclusion that the NoKos have not - yet - ousted U.S. and U.N. on-site monitors overseeing the nuclear fuel facility's alleged dismantling.

Mayhap that is a reason and mayhap it isn't. But another most definitely is an indefatiguible determination to poke, prod, and otherwise test Western resolve. Recall that the biggest factor in North Korea strategically retreating from its nuclear weapons development was that their first full-fledged test fizzled. Communists know better than anyone that you don't back up blustering threats like the ones they were issuing two years ago if you can't back them up with more than blanks. The nuke they set off underground in the far northeast corner of their territory was, by modern nuclear weapons standards, a dud (not even a kiloton). Having lost face - for the moment - Kim backed off.

Now he's reassembling his nuclear weapons facility right in front of us, and what is the response of ourselves and our equally feckless allies? "Concern," "(diplomatic) persuasion," and another wallowing indulgence in rationalizing and wishful-thinking.

Sex isn't the only thing in which there's always a morning after. Making deals with communist regimes is pointless because they cannot be trusted to abide by their obligations. How much more pointless are such "accords" when there are no practical enforcement provisions or pre-defined, imposable sanctions for non-compliance, and less than no willingness on the part of the "three-nation united anti-NoKo nukes front and their two ill-disguised enablers" to do whatever it takes to force Pyongyang to keep their word?

What will we do if the ChiComms and Russkies don't lean on their client to backtrack from their backtrack? If they do kick out the international monitors and fire up Yongbyon again? Was the point of this four-year diplomatic cluster to disarm the NoKos or buy time for Round #27?