Bush spurned secret 2002 N. Korea overture-report

[Mojorabbit]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050622/ts_nm/korea_usa_dc


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il attempted to engage President Bush directly on the nuclear weapons issue three years ago but the administration spurned the overture, two American experts on Asia said on Wednesday.

Writing in the Washington Post, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg and former journalist Don Oberdorfer expressed concern that Kim's November 2002 initiative was never pursued and urged Bush to respond positively to his current overture, made last week.

When Bush took office in 2001, U.S. officials estimated Pyongyang had fuel for one or two nuclear weapons. Now, that estimate is up to at least half a dozen and, the authors said, "many believe their claim to have fabricated the weapons themselves."

Gregg and Oberdorfer said

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Would have interfered with his plans for Iraq

N. Korea on timeline for AFTER Iraq, Syria, and Iran

[dArKeR]

2. NO, it's not that deep. When a brain has been subjected to daily doses

of alcohol and cocaine for 30 years straight there aren't many higher level brain functions left. It's Cheney and Rove calling all the shots.

[Mojorabbit]

3. It is

a slow drip but little by little...