Excerpt: "Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has expressed a desire to visit Pyongyang as a messenger between the United States and North Korea, Park Han-shik, an emeritus professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, said Sunday."
Former president Jimmy Carter. (photo: Getty)
Jimmy Carter Offers to Meet With Kim Jung Un to Avoid New Korean War
11 October 17
ormer U.S. President Jimmy Carter has expressed a desire to visit Pyongyang as a messenger between the United States and North Korea, Park Han-shik, an emeritus professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, said Sunday.
�Carter wants to meet with the North Korean leader and play a constructive role for peace on the Korean Peninsula as he did in 1994,� Park, 78, told the JoongAng Ilbo over phone after meeting with the 93-year-old former president.
Park, a prominent scholar of North Korea-related issues who has traveled to Pyongyang over 50 times, visited Carter, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work with the Atlanta-based Carter Center, at the former president�s home in Plains, Georgia, on Sept. 28.
�Should former President Carter be able to visit North Korea, he would like to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and discuss a peace treaty between the United States and the North and a complete denuclearization of North Korea,� Park said, �and contribute toward establishing a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.�
�He wants to employ his experience visiting North Korea to prevent a second Korean War,� he continued.
During the peak of the North Korean nuclear crisis in 1994, when the U.S. military under President Bill Clinton drew up plans to strike a nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, Carter traveled to Pyongyang in June that year to defuse tensions and reached a deal with then-leader Kim Il Sung for North Korea to freeze its nuclear program.
Kim died a month later on July 8 and was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il, the father of the current leader.
Then in October, the United States and North Korea adopted the Agreed Framework, under which North Korea would freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear program, addressing Washington�s concerns about its plutonium-producing reactors and Yongbyon nuclear facility.
In turn, North Korea was promised fuel oil and assistance in the construction of two light-water reactors.
Now, 23 years after he played a decisive role in resolving the last nuclear crisis, Carter has strong resolve to mediate between the two countries once again, Park said.
The professor added it was why Carter has publicly raised the need for a U.S. government delegation to visit North Korea and convince the regime to give up its weapons program.
In an Oct. 4 opinion piece in The Washington Post, Carter described the �strong possibility of another Korean war� as �the most serious existing threat to world peace,� and wrote that it was �imperative that Pyongyang and Washington find some way to ease the escalating tension and reach a lasting, peaceful agreement.�
The former president pointed out that North Korean officials have always demanded direct talks with the United States as well as a permanent peace treaty to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War, which technically concluded in a cease-fire.
�They want an end to sanctions, a guarantee that there will be no military attack on a peaceful North Korea, and eventual normal relations between their country and the international community,� Carter wrote.
Other options to resolve the crisis, such as military strikes on the North�s nuclear facilities, more severe economic punishment or an end to joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, do not �offer an immediate way to end the present crisis, because the Pyongyang government believes its survival is at stake,� he wrote.
Carter went on to call U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson�s statement that Washington has lines of communication with Pyongyang �a good first step to defusing tensions.�
The next step, he wrote, would be for the United States to offer a �high-level delegation� to visit Pyongyang for peace talks, or support an international conference that includes the two Koreas, the United States and China.
Although Carter did not explicitly suggest himself as an envoy to North Korea in his opinion piece, Park said he conveyed the former president�s wish to head such a U.S. delegation to the country through informal channels with North Korea.
Park previously helped to arrange Carter�s visit to Pyongyang in 1994 and 2010. However, North Korea has yet to respond.
A trip by Carter would require special approval from the U.S. government.
Since Sept. 1, the Donald Trump administration has banned U.S. citizens from traveling to North Korea.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
Your love for the Constitution-ha ting NSA is duly noted.
Walter? Did you write this?
The Canadian equivalent is the Toronto Globe&Mail which likes to fancy itself as Canada's "newspaper of record". I parted company with them when they recommended electing a Conservative majority govt (Stephen Harper as PM) in the last federal election campaign. They got their wish - I often wonder if they regret it. Common sense would suggest that they should. Anyway, for that and other reasons I gave up on them and shifted to the Toronto Star - which is also partisan but unlike the G&M doesn't pretend it isn't - and is partisan in a more civilized way. Also, the Star has much better columnists: Haroon Siddiqi, Heather Mallick, Linda Mcuaig, Thomas Walkom, Tim Harper, Rick Salutin, Chantal Hebert, ...
1) Participatory Media who's shares are owned by all Founder, Worker, Supplier & Consumer stakeholders who are represented in systems of Progressive Ownership in distinct associations & on the corporate board of directors. Time-based accounting in participatory companies accords credits for each stakeholder's exceptional natural contributions. When each of these 4 stakeholders exceptionally contribute expertise, time, resources, money, property, good, services or patronage, there are ways to measure the market value & accord shares.
https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/structure/7-participatory-companies
2) The news presented covers all perspectives, reporting from all sides with often conflicting vantages given. If media is not presenting all sides, they have a particular agenda, are lazy & usually are deliberately lying. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/structure/both-sides-now-equal-time-recorded-dialogues
In 1975, the WP's unionized printers went out on strike. The post's response was to fire them and replace them with non-union labor. One can I think make a reasonable case that this became the precedent for Ronald Reagan doing the same thing to the unionized air traffic controllers in 1981 (hard to imagine Reagan's staff was unaware of this move on the part of the "liberal" WP and figured hey if the "liberal" WP can do it it's a no brainer for us to do the same).
We cannot.
And All Scoundrels Rejoice.
What goes around comes around. What do we expect for the invasions & destruction of humanity's sustainable vastly abundant worldwide 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generatin g') cultures? Do we expect to just continue on in the destructive colonial patterns we worship? If we want to move forward as a sustainable people, then we will have to address our foundations. www.indigenecommunity.info
Major General Albert Stubblebine, a member of U.S. Military Intelligence Hall of Fame,
tried to get the truth out that no plane hit the Pentagon and the WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolition. No mainstream media including The Guardian would cover his statements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNr_TrBw6E
Ted Gunderson, former head of FBI for Los Angeles, Houston and Memphis, gave his opinions on why 9/11 was an inside job. No mainstream media would cover that either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRaezLTU2a0
So why is the media covering Snowdon?
9/11 is the key to ending war forever, in my opinion.
If the majority knew the truth, it would certainly end the fake war on terror. But would that cause our illusion of democracy to be replaced with the very apparent police state that is lurking in the background, stockpiling millions of rounds of hollow-point bullets?
They have the wealth. They own the media.
They have the police state in place.
And most of the people I talk to have bought their lies.
So why is he cheap if you didn't know?
The answers are 1) Nothing, and 2)Because the rightwing (and extreme left) saw this as an opportunity to vilify Obama.
The uninformed majority in this country would most likely buy the false premise that if it is criminal to reveal the spying, the spying must be legal.
Are Snowden's actions worse than Berger's who only had to pay a fine?
Yes, of course they are! Snowden stole and SHARED classified US intelligence with foreign powers who do not necessarily have our best interests at heart. That's textboook espionage and probably legally treasonous.
Just keep tracking !
Anyone read today's Paul Craig Roberts article about Putin's remarks at the G8?
So thankful for anyone (like Greenwald) who believes that facts are good things, and competency should be a requirement in journalism. Or call the reports and paper, "opinion", not news.
God protect and preserve you, and the nothing but True Liberty and Freedom, and True Journalism, that you represent and uphold, Glenn Greenwald. God speed, True Patriot; and may you live long and prosper in those continued pursuits!
The case of Gary Webb is monumental. When he published his stories in the San Jose Mercury about CIA and cocaine traffic to gangs in LA, the WaPo lead the attack on Webb for his reporting. I recall Pincus was a leader in that attack.
We must remember that Walter Pincus was one reporter exposed in the 70s as having taken payments from the CIA. The Church Committee exposed 300 US journalists who took bribes from the CIA -- regular payroll they called it.
The WaPo story on Greenwald is not new. This is what Pincus and the Post have done over and over. They are the gatekeepers of news. They break the stories that they think americans should know and they cover up what they think americans should not know. Katherine Graham, long time owner of the Post, said exactly this in an interview, "there are some things the people should not know." Hardly, the right attitude for an owner of a major newspaper.