The Financial Times is reporting that the North Korean government has invited Eric Clapton to perform. The invitation comes on the heels of a historic visit by the New York Philharmonic to the Hermit Kingdom.
Judging by the New York Times' account of the intensely emotional concert, we can't even begin to imagine how "Slowhand" will be received. That is, by those North Koreans who have actually been permitted to listen to the British guitar icon's music.
FT reports that Clapton agreed to a concert "in principle," although his reps have yet to confirm it. Rock and pop are banned in North Korea. Some will have fun imagining Kim Jong Il rocking out to "Cocaine" -- but AP reports that his son, Kim Jong Chol, is the family's Clapton fan.
So, Russia has just delivered the first shipment of 80 tons of uranium fuel rods to Iran's disputed Bushehr nuclear reactor. Now what?
Wait-and-see time, apparently. It is not clear how close the Bushehr facility is to full production capacity. A spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Agency said that Bushehr was 95-percent finished, according to the Los Angeles Times, but Iran has walked a tricky line between simultaneously exaggerating and denying its nuclear capacity for years.
Taking a question on Iran during a speech on the economy this morning, President Bush seemed to welcome news of the arrangement, but with a caveat.
"Interestingly enough, today Russia sent some enriched, or is in the process of sending enriched uranium to Iran to help on their civilian nuclear reactor. If that's the case, if the Russians are willing to do that -- which I support -- then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich," Bush said. "If the Iranians accept that uranium for a civilian nuclear power plant, then there's no need for them to learn how to enrich," he repeated.
Memo To Congress: Maybe Try Doing Things Another Way
Just a year after voting for a partisan makeover, Americans think Congress is the pits. The main reason: that body's seeming inability to get anything done.
Considering all those lengthy floor debates and filibusters don't seem to get bickering lawmakers much closer to compromise, perhaps the ladies and gentlemen of the House and Senate ought to try settling their differences the old-fashioned way.
Flanked by the vice president and the rest of his Cabinet-level officials, President Bush cheerfully reminded Congress of the mountain of legislative work they must tackle before departing for the holidays.
"I thank the Senate and congratulate the Senate for passing a good energy bill," Bush said at a press conference on the White House lawn. "Now the House must act."
Bush emerged to speak with reporters this morning following his weekly Cabinet meeting. He scored a victory yesterday when the Senate overwhelmingly passed an energy package minus a Democratic-sponsored $21.8 billion provision that would have reduced tax breaks for oil companies. The overall bill remains tough on automakers, however, and is expected to make it through the House next Tuesday with relative ease.
Even in the blogosphere, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gets a little tetchy.
From a post dated 11/18/07: "Since my last post on the blog, a few months have passed. But this doesn't mean that I have not been keeping my promise of spending fifteen minutes per week on it. As a matter of fact, I have spent more than the allocated time on the blog."
Hear that, world? Now back off. Ahmadinejad's most recent post is dated 12/1, so it looks as if the president's a little busy these days. If you'd like to send him a little note -- what's Persian for "wassup?" -- there's a comments section. The blog is available in Persian, Arabic, English and French. (Hat tip: IHT)
Now on to North Korea. A fewdevelopments here, but if you are keen to know what life is like inside the Hermit Kingdom, NPR producer Madhulika Sikkadescribed her recent visit on "Morning Edition" today.
In an unusually personal move, President Bush sent North Korean leader Kim Jong Il a letter, according to a Pyongyang news agency.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill reportedly handed over the letter yesterday during a meeting with North Korean diplomats. Hill was in China to give a briefing on his three-day visit to the region to discuss Pyongyang's continued uranium enrichment and a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. After inspecting the reactor complex yesterday, Hill told reporters that its dismantling is on track. U.S. inspectors have been overseeing work on the plant, which North Korea agreed to shut down earlier this year.
Contents of the letter were not disclosed, but Korea expert Noriyuki Suzuki speculated in Reuters reports that it "was aimed at backing what Christopher Hill had been telling to the North Koreans in the past negotiations... The letter must contain the basic U.S. stance that Washington is ready to drop North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, improve relations and normalize diplomatic relations with North Korea on condition that the North disable and abandon its nuclear weapons programs."
The U.S. Navy is revamping its global posture for the first time in a quarter of a century through new collaboration with the Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
Calling the maritime services "a unifying force and a willing partner for global prosperity and peace," the Navy unveiled its new strategy last week at the International Seapower Symposium in Rhode Island. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead (who formally replaced now-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen less than a month ago) said earlier this month, "We must be prepared for many future paths, many dangers and many potential threats. And that requires, above all, a long-term perspective and a long-term commitment to building a Navy capable of meeting 21st-century challenges."
The U.S. maritime focus will continue to be on support operations for the other armed forces and combat readiness, but the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard will also look past the current conflicts in the Middle East to the waters around China, Africa and South America. Humanitarian missions and sea commerce will also be of primary importance for the maritime services.
It's a banner week for Korean diplomacy. The yearslong six-party negotiations have at last resulted in a promise by North Korea to disable all of its nuclear facilities by the end of the year. And in separate talks, the two Koreas agreed to stop pointing weapons at each other (figuratively, though, not literally).
One can't blame the Wall Street Journal for optimistically comparing this week's events(subscription) to the thaw between the West and Libya, which voluntarily gave up its nukes and made sufficient amends to be taken off Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism. As the Journal notes, the world needs a bit of this kind of good news, considering the gathering storm over Iran.
But there may be a cynical devil lurking over many a Korea-watcher's shoulder. And his name is former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.
Not far from the demilitarized zone that divides North and South Korea are gigantic signs facing the north, beckoning the oppressed citizenry there to come to the other side, "where life is happy."
If the Bush administration is frustrated at Seoul's seeming dearth of anger toward its northern neighbor, this is why: The north-south divide between the Koreans, one of the world's most homogenous people, is to this day a gaping hole in the national psyche. Some South Koreans are haunted by long-lost relatives who wound up stuck on the wrong side of the 38th parallel. Others, particularly those too young to remember the war, are sick of what they increasingly view as American paternalism and want the Koreas to sort out their affairs for themselves.
That's among the reasons lame-duck South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has embarked on his first-ever visit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, the object of so much scorn and ridicule elsewhere in the world. A little paunchier and with fewer curls in that famous coiffure, Kim was on hand to greet Roh in Pyongyang today, despite previous announcements he wouldn't meet with his visitor until later.
Buoyed by the North's softening on its nuclear program, Roh seems intent on coming away with results, whether it's a step toward officially ending the 1950-1953 war or another guarantee Pyongyang is dropping its nuclear program. But the time for a "sunshine policy" toward the north, a bane of both the Bush and Clinton State Departments, may be coming to an end.
By granting somanyinterviews to curious American journalists and agreeing to take questions from college students at Columbia, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made sure that this year's meeting of the U.N. General Assembly would revolve around him. It helps that his BFF in these parts, Venezuelan firebrand Hugo Chavez, sat this one out, which means Ahmadinejad's "no gays in Iran" statement remains the craziest (and most sinister) thing said all week.
Ahmadinejad put on his "serious" face (no smiling) yesterday when he delivered his U.S.-centric speech before the General Assembly. The American delegation didn't bother to stick around for its entirety, such was its predictability. If this scenario reminds you of last year's meeting at the U.N., it should. The bottom line for the Security Council has been no nuclear material for Iran, period. Yesterday, Ahmadinejad ensured that the U.N. will act to shut him down, one way or another.
North Korea was connected to a suspected nuclear facility in Syria that the Israeli military bombed earlier this month, and the Israeli government alerted President Bush before the strike, according to a story in the Washington Post this morning.
U.S. officials were "deeply troubled" by the idea that the North Koreans were helping a country affiliated with Iran, a potential nuclear threat, the Post continues, but "the White House opted against an immediate response because of concerns it would undermine long-running negotiations aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear program."
"Ultimately, however, the United States is believed to have provided Israel with some corroboration of the original intelligence before Israel proceeded with the raid, which hit the Syrian facility in the dead of night to minimize possible casualties," sources told the Post.
... we're going to war with Iran. France is on board, too. (With us, not Iran.)
What?
The surreality of global relations this week is enough to make us wonder if we're trapped inside one of John Bolton's fevered dreams. Let's untangle this web of crazy carefully, lest all our heads collectively explode.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is now seeking to assure allies that his country will "negotiate, negotiate, negotiate" before resorting to the option of war with Iran. On Sunday, the socialist ignited a firestorm when he told an interviewer, "We must prepare for the worst," adding, "The worst, sir, is war."
Kouchner said that France was "preparing" itself for the prospect of war in the event efforts to dismantle Iran's nuclear program were unsuccessful.
En route to a meeting with his counterpart in Moscow today, Kouchner sought to dial back his earlier remarks. "I do not want it said that I'm a warmonger. My message was one of peace, serious and determined," he told traveling reporters. Later, he blamed the media for running wild with what he'd said on Sunday. "As usual with journalists, they take one phrase and you don't know what came after," he said on a Russian radio talk show.
That's fair. Then again, maybe France picked a really bad time to propose Germany dump its historical baggage and dive into the nukes business.
Report: Germany Wavers, U.S. Revives Iran Planning
About a month ago, we wondered why White House officials were leaking word that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps was to be designated a terrorist organization. Looks like we may have an answer.
Reuters reports that the leak may have been a hawkish attempt to goad the State Department into taking a tougher line on Tehran. The White House alleges Iran is arming and funding Shiite insurgents in Iraq, compounding existing frustration over Iran's nuclear ambitions. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has mostly laughed off U.N. economic sanctions aimed at his uranium enrichment program.
Now, there are indications the sanctions process may have hit a roadblock.
The nuclear watchdog of the U.N. has confirmed that North Korea shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, nearly five years after the reclusive communist nation defiantly sparked a WMD standoff with the United States. Time for high-fiving in the White House, right?
Only if you've got a short memory. Washington has been down this road with dictator Kim Jong-il before, and while there's a startling amount that the U.S. doesn't know about the Dear Leader, one thing is certain: Kim isn't going to make the de-nuclearization process easy.
More than $20 million was transferred into North Korean accounts Tuesday, as the United States freed up assets it had previously frozen because of fraud allegations. The transfer was part of a newly struck agreement under which Pyongyang would shut down its lone nuclear reactor.
A team of IAEA inspectors is set to visit the reactor site next week. For the second day in a row, the United States pushed for a fast pace on the negotiations.
"I think this is the time when everyone needs to kind of quicken the pace and work very hard" toward disarmament, said U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, speaking to reporters in Tokyo. He added that he hoped the shutdown could take place "within weeks, not months."
Yesterday, North Korea test-fired a missile in the direction of Japanese waters, but officials said the launch was just routine and wouldn't have an impact on new negotiations.
North Korea took half a step back today, after its one step forward this past weekend.
A Saturday announcement from North Korean officials that the International Atomic Energy Agency would be invited to supervise the shutdown of a nuclear reactor prompted hope in the international community that quick progress could be made. The United States jumped on the announcement, urging U.N. inspectors to shut the reactor down as part of their first visit next week.
But new reports came in today of North Korea firing a short-range missile toward waters near Japan. It's the second launch of its kind in two weeks.
It's a little odd that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe waited eight months after assuming office to pay a visit to the United States, Japan's staunchest ally and military guardian. But this week's meeting between Abe and George W. Bush underscores a truth that might be easy to forget, particularly after last night: Bush hasn't left office yet.
Speaking to reporters today after a series of meetings, the two leaders, both deeply unpopular at home, reaffirmed their commitment to working out the North Korean nuclear crisis and seeing Iraq through to stability.
"We feel proud as an ally of the United States," Abe said, speaking in Japanese.
The North Korean delegation to the six-party talks over its country's nuclear program has walked away from the latest round of negotiations. The sticking point this time around was money.
The Bush administration arranged for about $25 million in cash frozen in a Macau bank to be released to Pyongyang. But South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that "the money transfer was being delayed because Macau authorities were having difficulty confirming the ownership of 50 North Korean accounts, most of which are under the names of the heads of Zokwang Trading Co., a North Korean-run firm in Macau that U.S. officials have long suspected of being involved in money-laundering," according to AP.
The six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula have been extended to tomorrow, after hitting a roadblock on the matter of cash, the Washington Post reports.
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The Financial Times is reporting that the North Korean government has invited Eric Clapton to perform. The invitation comes on the heels of a historic visit by the New York Philharmonic to the Hermit Kingdom.
Flanked by the vice president and the rest of his Cabinet-level officials, President Bush cheerfully reminded Congress of the mountain of legislative work they must tackle before departing for the holidays.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill reportedly 
It's a banner week for Korean diplomacy. The yearslong six-party negotiations have 
If the Bush administration is frustrated at Seoul's seeming dearth of anger toward its northern neighbor, this is why: The north-south divide between the Koreans, one of the world's most homogenous people, is to this day a gaping hole in the national psyche. Some South Koreans are haunted by long-lost relatives who wound up stuck on the wrong side of the 38th parallel. Others, particularly those too young to remember the war, are sick of what they increasingly view as American paternalism and want the Koreas to sort out their affairs for themselves.
By granting 
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is now 
Only if you've got a short memory. Washington 
