Enabler of the Month: The U.S. enabled Kim Jong Il (again)
The United States government, again enabling North Korean despot Kim Jong Il. I wrote in the “codependent of the month” section of the July 2006 issue, “The six nations attempting to control Kim Jong Il’s North Korea qualify for codependents of the month, and perhaps the decade. Like any other addict, Kim makes numerous promises he never keeps. Like other codependents, those dealing with him try negotiation, logic and reason. As pointed out in Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society’s Most Destructive Disease, ‘Attempting to negotiate with a brain affected by alcoholism is like trying to be rational with a reptile….The brain of the practicing alcoholic, soaked in acetaldehyde, is not a rational one. The addict cannot see that his troubles extend any further than your toes, which he will crush if given the opportunity.'”
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton (now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute), is my kind of non-enabler. He wrote an op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal on May 18 in which he castigated the Bush administration for being unwilling to “just say no.” On February 13, the Six-Party Talks in Beijing ratified a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and North Korea, providing that Pyongyang would within 60 days “shut down and seal for the purpose of eventual abandonment” the Yongbyon nuclear facility and readmit inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Instead, more than 100 days later, North Korea is demanding that $25 million in funds it likely made from counterfeiting U.S. currency (the first country since Hitler’s Germany to counterfeit another’s currency–and high-quality, too), money laundering and drug running that were frozen by U.S. officials be unfrozen and returned. As Bolton wrote, it’s the North’s (and I would add, the addict’s) classic style: “Negotiate hard to reach an agreement, sign it, and then start renegotiating, not to mention violating the agreement at will.” The dangerous precedent, just as with addicts we personally know, is that the U.S. gave in, even though there was no connection in the bilateral agreement between returning the funds and shutting down the nuclear program. Addicts don’t stop pressing for more and, indeed, North Korea is doing just that. Addicts–and governments headed by despots–who sense weakness, see meal tickets. U.S. Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser said, “We have assurances the funds are going to be transferred to a bank in Beijing to be used for humanitarian and educational purposes.” If a street drunk uses the funds we drop in his cup for food, we have enabled if he uses the proceeds from a stolen stereo to buy booze. Oh, and I won’t ever again hit you or spend your money without your approval or forget to pick up the kids or cheat on you or….