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Journalism of Courage
The North Korean government, which last week agreed to hold talks with US and four other countries over its nuclear programmes, on Sunday denounced a senior US official in highly personal and florid terms and said he could not be part of any US delegation to the talks.
John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, last week delivered a tough speech in Seoul that focused on N Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and his grip on the nation. The speech, titled ‘‘A Dictatorship at the Crossroads,’’ described life in N Korea as ‘‘a hellish nightmare’’ and called Kim a ‘‘tyrannical rogue.’’
Bolton mentioned Kim by name 40 times and appeared to make the case for government change. Bolton charged that ‘‘while he (Kim) lives like royalty in Pyongyang, he keeps hundreds of thousands of his people locked in prison camps with millions more mired in abject poverty.’’
On Sunday, N Korea fired back. In a statement attributed to a spokesman for N Korean foreign ministry, Pyongyang said: ‘‘We know that there are several hawks in the present US administration but have not yet found out such rude human scum as Bolton. What he uttered is no more than rubbish which can be let loose only by a man bereft of reason.’’ The statement said Bolton’s speech ‘‘makes one doubt whether he is a man with an elementary faculty of thinking and stature as a man or not’’ and ‘‘cast(s) a doubt as to whether the US truly wants to negotiate with the DPRK (N Korea) or not.’’
The statement said, however, N Korea was still committed to attend the talks, noting ‘‘a caravan is bound to go ahead though dogs bark.’’ But Pyongyang made clear ‘‘such human scum and bloodsucker is not entitled to take part in the talks.’’ In fact, the statement added, that in light of Bolton’s ‘‘political vulgarity and psychopathological condition,’’ the government has ‘‘decided not to consider him as an official of the US administration any longer, nor to deal with him.’’
In the two previous high-level meetings between US officials and N Korea, the US delegation was led by Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly. But some of Bolton’s allies in the past have pressed for him to lead a US delegation meeting with the N Koreans. The next round of talks, expected to take place next month, will also include representatives from China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. (LAT-WP)
