Alternative Futures for the Korean Peninsula by Nicholas Eberstadt

I once described Russia as being pretty much like an old uncle who had fallen on hard times. By being involved in the Six-Party talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, I had suggested that Russia hoped to firstly, retain some kind of remnant influence it has on North Korea, and secondly, benefit economically if things turn out well between Pyongyang and Washington.

But when I read in Nicholas Eberstadt's article (Korean Scenarios: Alternative Futures for the Korean Peninsula, Strategic Asia 2004-5) that Moscow made an under-the-table payment of $10 million to Pyongyang to attend the February 2004 round of six-party talks, I cannot help but think that Russia is even more pathetic than I imagined it to be.

Since I am on the article, I think it is probably true for Eberstadt to say that North Korea had funded its nuclear weapons program even during the mid-1990s famine. But I would have preferred to see more evidence and substantiation.

But I applaud Eberstadt for painting North Korea in a rational and non-adventurous light, especially when he wrote:

"The fact that North Korea's greatest nuclear advances to date have occurred under the aegis of the Bush administration, arguably the U.S. government most explicitly hostile to Pyongyang's international policies and purposes of any yet elected, should underscore the fact that North Korea's achievements in this ongoing crisis have not been adventitious."

In my own words, the George W Bush administration is largely to be blamed for the current crisis and impasse.