Did North Korea Really Cheat Response

My post last week about if North Korea really cheated in regards to its nucear weapons program which was based on an article in Foreign Affairs magazine by Selig Harrison who believes the US may be manipulating or misreading intelligence about the North’s nuclear program in order to create a crisis on the peninsula so the US can continue to control North Korean policy instead of South Korea or Japan.

I don’t agree with everything Mr. Harrison says and Charles Tustison at Korea Watch offers his own rebuttal of the Foreign Affairs article.

Fisking this article is a challenge because there is so much that is inaccurate or misleading. This is not the fault of Mr. Harrison. He is an expert on what is taught and reported about north Korea. However, much of what is reported and taught is based on an inaccurate views pushed by the Korean right and left. These are the views that caused the Clinton administration to underestimate north Korea’s staying power, the views that put south Korean President Kim Dae Jung and later US Secretary of State Albright in meetings with Kim Jong Il under the mistaken impression that he was unable to speak, mentally deficient, or even “delusional.” It is this set of views that caused the Bush administration to offer north Korea’s military aid for removing Kim Jong Il, when it is Kim Jong Il holding north Korea’s military back.

Read rest of the article here, it is an interesting read.