FACT CHECK: A Tony Snow-Job on North Korea

Today, Tony Snow Repudiated the Clinton North Korea Policy He Characterized as Bringing “Flowers and Chocolates” to Pyongyang.  “This is not the Clinton Administration policy. I understand what the Clinton Administration wanted to do. They wanted to talk reason to the government of Pyongyang, and they engaged in bilateral conversations. And Bill Richardson went with flowers and chocolates and he went with light water nuclear reactors, and he went with promises of heavy oil and a basketball signed by Michael Jordan, and many other inducements for the Dear Leader to try to agree not to develop nuclear weapons, and it failed.  But there was at least a good faith effort on the part of some very smart people to use that as an approach. We've learned from that mistake. One reason not to go bilateral with the North Koreans is what we're seeing right now, which is that you need to have concerted pressure especially from those who are very close ties with the government of North Korea so you can get results. So this is not a continuation of the Clinton program.”  [White House Press Conference, 7/10/06]

      FACT:  Under Bush’s Watch, North Korea Has Increased its Stockpiles of Plutonium – Under Clinton, No Plutonium Was Produced.  A study by the National Security Advisory Group drew upon the analysis of the Group’s chairman, former Defense Secretary Bill Perry, and more than a dozen national security experts including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former Assistant Secretaries of Defense Ash Carter, Graham Allison, Michele Flournoy, and found that the amount of plutonium produced by North Korea under the last three presidents to have been: 

•         Bush I: one to two bombs’ worth of plutonium

•         Clinton: zero plutonium

•         Bush II: 4-6 nuclear weapons’ worth of plutonium and counting

      FACT:  While Other Presidents Had Problems with North Korea, Bush’s Policies Have Made the Problem Worse.  “Dealing with North Korea has frustrated every president since Truman. But it has proved particularly vexing for Mr. Bush because his administration has engaged in a six-year internal argument about whether to negotiate with the country or try to plot its collapse — it has sought to do both, simultaneously — and because America's partners in dealing with North Korea each have differing interests in North Korea's future.” [New York Times, 6/6/06]

      FACT:  Questions Have Been Raised about the Evidence on which the Bush Administration Decided the Clinton-Era Policies Weren’t Working.  “Much has been written about the North Korean nuclear danger, but one crucial issue has been ignored: just how much credible evidence is there to back up Washington's uranium accusation?  . . . Relying on sketchy data, the Bush administration presented a worst-case scenario as an incontrovertible truth and distorted its intelligence on North Korea (much as it did on Iraq), seriously exaggerating the danger that Pyongyang is secretly making uranium-based nuclear weapons. This failure to distinguish between civilian and military uranium-enrichment capabilities has greatly complicated what would, in any case, have been difficult negotiations to end all existing North Korean nuclear weapons programs and to prevent any future efforts through rigorous inspection.”  [Selig Harrison, Foreign Affairs, January-February 2005]

      FACT:  George Will Says North Korea – and the Rest of the “Axis of Evil” – Is More Dangerous Today Than When the Term “Axis of Evil” Was Coined.  “Today, with all three components of the "axis of evil" -- Iraq, Iran and North Korea -- more dangerous than they were when that phrase was coined in 2002, the country would welcome, and Iraq's political class needs to hear, as a glimpse into the abyss, presidential words as realistic as those Britain heard on June 4, 1940.”  [Washington Post, 3/2/06]

      William Kristol Says Bush Dropped the Ball on North Korea. “‘North Korea is firing missiles. Iran is going nuclear. Somalia is controlled by radical Islamists. Iraq isn't getting better, and Afghanistan is getting worse,’ said William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and a leading conservative commentator. ‘I give the president a lot of credit for hanging tough on Iraq. But I am worried that it has made them too passive in confronting the other threats.” [Washington Post, 7/6/06]

Senate Democrats Have Consistently Worked to Fix the Failed Bush Administration Policy on North Korea

June 22, 2006.  The Senate passes legislation in the Defense Authorization bill cosponsored by Senators Reid, Biden, and Levin establishing a North Korea Policy Coordinator and mandating a policy review and new reports to Congress on the nuclear and missile threat from North Korea. 

June 16, 2006.  Democratic Senators Levin and Clinton send a letter to President Bush urging him to “develop a single, coordinated Presidential strategy to diplomatically address North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat.” The senators also urged the President to appoint a senior Presidential envoy to implement the strategy and to keep Congress and the American people fully informed of North Korea’s activities.

February 3, 2006.  Senate Democrats Reid, Levin, Biden and Rockefeller send a letter to the President noting that Bush failed to mention North Korea in his State of the Union address and saying that the President’s policy “still has not resulted in an elimination, freeze, or even a slowing of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile activities.” The letter also calls for a declassified version of the most recent NIE on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs so Congress can have accurate information to engage in a full and free debate about policy options.  [The Administration subsequently denied the request for declassification of the NIE.]

July 3, 2005. Senate Democrats Levin and Clinton publish an editorial in the Washington Post calling on the Bush administration to inject seriousness and urgency into efforts to negotiate with North Korea. The authors argued that the Administration needs to take control of the talks, stalled for over a year, by spelling out a package to the North Koreans that addresses their fundamental need for economic assistance, sending a senior American official to meet with Kim Jong Il, and agreeing with our allies on a timetable for diplomacy – deadlines for when the next meeting will be held and for a final solution.

July 2005.  Senate Democrats commission and publish a study by the National Security Advisory Group to review the Bush Administration’s policy on North Korea, Iran, loose nukes, and the nonproliferation treaty.  Their report, “Worst Weapons in Worst Hands: US Inaction on the Nuclear Terror Threat Since 9/11, and a Path of Action,” drew upon the analysis of the Group’s chairman, former Defense Secretary Bill Perry, and more than a dozen national security experts including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former Assistant Secretaries of Defense Ash Carter, Graham Allison, and Michele Flournoy.

June 23, 2005.  Congressional Democrats Reid, Levin, Biden and Rockefeller send a letter to the President noting that “with respect to the challenge of North Korea, American national security has degraded over the past year,” and noting that “our current path leads to one of two bad outcomes: either the United States essentially will acquiesce to the North’s serial production of nuclear weapons, or we will find ourselves in a military confrontation with a desperate, nuclear-armed regime.”  The Senators urged the President to appoint a special envoy to coordinate Korea policy and represent the US in direct dialogue with North Korea and at the Six Party Talks, and urged that priorities be set to end North Korea’s production of plutonium, remove all fissile material from the country, and dismantle its nuclear weapons related facilities.  [The Administration eventually responded, promising progress in the coming weeks and months.]