North Korea Displeased with Obama

Sherri Siegele

Apparently North Korea is not impressed by President Obama. A spokesperson for the North Korean Foreign Ministry is quoted as saying “The study of the policy pursued by the Obama administration for the past 100 days since its emergence made it clear that the U.S. hostile policy toward the D.P.R.K. remains unchanged,” This comes one day after a U.S. diplomat offered to have “new” conversation involving negotiation with North Korea about its nuclear program. This made me think of Muck’s comment about Iran this afternoon; as long as Iran continues to feel a security threat it will continue to act defensively -- if the security threat is eased/removed and incentives are in place then the possibility of cooperation among states exists. I agree with this concept but I’m not convinced it would work with North Korea. This state falls into a category of its own and it doesn’t have the best track record for acting diplomatically.