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NORTH KOREA BEGINS 'PLAN C'

Kim Myong Chol

Asia Times, October 14, 2009

"History demonstrates that developing China-North Korea relations are in keeping with the fundamental interests and shared wishes of both countries' peoples. It also benefits the protection of regional peace and stability." - Chinese President Hu Jintao

"Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was at the behest of the late president Kim Il-sung. The hostile relations between the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] and the US should be turned into peaceful ones through bilateral talks."- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il

TOKYO - High-profile visits to Pyongyang by two foreign leaders - former United States president Bill Clinton in early August and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao this month - have gone a long way towards dramatizing the senselessness of the much-publicized United Nations sanctions on North Korea. They have also helped North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to consider switching gears to a "Plan C" as a permanent nuclear power.

In an op-ed published in the Christian Science Monitor in July, Professor Zhiqun Zhu wrote, "Frankly, it is unrealistic for the US to ask North Korea to give up its nuclear technology. The reason is simple: The nuclear card is the only one North Korea has; it will not easily give it away. The ostrich policy of refusing to accept North Korea as a nuclear state has to be ditched. A solution to the North Korea conundrum must begin with recognizing the fact that North Korea has the ability to produce nuclear weapons and will remain nuclear-capable."

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