January 18, 2016
By Andrew Ross Sorkin
The invitation was sent. And then, two weeks later, revoked. (click here)
The World Economic Forum, which on Wednesday begins its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, brings together political and business leaders to discuss the world’s most pressing problems. In years past, Vladimir V. Putin has attended. So has Bill Gates. This year, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will attend.
And so it wasn’t a complete surprise to see that the foreign minister of North Korea, Ri Su-Yong, had accepted an invitation to attend the meeting in the Swiss Alps....
North Korea believes nuclear power brings respect. It doesn't stop to realize they are on a very different projection than the rest of the world.
...The World Economic Forum, through one of its board members, Philipp Rösler, explained its decision. “We decided after the nuclear test that at the moment there would be no opportunity for an international, global dialogue in the spirit of the World Economic Forum,” he said....
I would expect North Korea with a new young leader would see a better path forward by joining the world in an economic forum the North Korean people desperately need. But, instead, the young leader of North Korea trashed the entire idea of peace and economic prosperity in a single test of nuclear capacity. Will it every change? It has been six decades and a full generation has been born and will die without having a better quality of life.
The seclusion of North Korea was never intended as it has happened. The only thing I question is whether or not Kim Jong Un actually has a grasp on what international relations are about and how economic prosperity can grow out of it.
...Even though Davos has sometimes been criticized as a boondoggle for the business elite, it has often been the stage for meaningful debate and compromise among policy makers. In 1994, for instance, thePalestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, and the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, entered the stage holding hands. Six years before, in 1988, Greece and Turkey signed a no-war agreement called the “Davos Declaration.”...
Basketball and good will won't solve this one.
Sometimes countries outside the five permanent members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty don't realize how much citizens of those five permanent members wish they never had nukes in the first place. Because nations without nuclear capacity feel so vulnerable they believe it is better to be armed rather than the other way around.
If one could wave a magic wand and all the nuclear bombs in the world could disappear off Earth there would be cheers heard around the world.
By Andrew Ross Sorkin
The invitation was sent. And then, two weeks later, revoked. (click here)
The World Economic Forum, which on Wednesday begins its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, brings together political and business leaders to discuss the world’s most pressing problems. In years past, Vladimir V. Putin has attended. So has Bill Gates. This year, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will attend.
And so it wasn’t a complete surprise to see that the foreign minister of North Korea, Ri Su-Yong, had accepted an invitation to attend the meeting in the Swiss Alps....
North Korea believes nuclear power brings respect. It doesn't stop to realize they are on a very different projection than the rest of the world.
...The World Economic Forum, through one of its board members, Philipp Rösler, explained its decision. “We decided after the nuclear test that at the moment there would be no opportunity for an international, global dialogue in the spirit of the World Economic Forum,” he said....
I would expect North Korea with a new young leader would see a better path forward by joining the world in an economic forum the North Korean people desperately need. But, instead, the young leader of North Korea trashed the entire idea of peace and economic prosperity in a single test of nuclear capacity. Will it every change? It has been six decades and a full generation has been born and will die without having a better quality of life.
The seclusion of North Korea was never intended as it has happened. The only thing I question is whether or not Kim Jong Un actually has a grasp on what international relations are about and how economic prosperity can grow out of it.
...Even though Davos has sometimes been criticized as a boondoggle for the business elite, it has often been the stage for meaningful debate and compromise among policy makers. In 1994, for instance, thePalestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, and the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, entered the stage holding hands. Six years before, in 1988, Greece and Turkey signed a no-war agreement called the “Davos Declaration.”...
Basketball and good will won't solve this one.
Sometimes countries outside the five permanent members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty don't realize how much citizens of those five permanent members wish they never had nukes in the first place. Because nations without nuclear capacity feel so vulnerable they believe it is better to be armed rather than the other way around.
If one could wave a magic wand and all the nuclear bombs in the world could disappear off Earth there would be cheers heard around the world.
