North Korea has always been dependent on financial aid. China has it's biggest financier until recently. The USA used to participate with assistance to North Korea, but, that ended with "W."
By Barbara Demick
Beijing: The Chinese President, Hu Jintao, (click here) has promised the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, help in developing his country's economy, while Mr Kim spoke of his desire to resume nuclear talks during a summit in the north-eastern Chinese city of Changchun, China has announced.
The belated announcement this week about the meeting on Friday put an end to a five-day state visit that was bizarrely secretive even by the standards of Mr Kim, 68, one of the world's most reclusive rulers. Mr Kim had slipped across the border into China in his armoured train early on Thursday, eluding detection by border residents and journalists and giving a very public snub to the former US president Jimmy Carter, who was in Pyongyang to successfully win the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American held since January for illegally entering the country....
In the 2002 "axis of evil" speech North Korea reacted by reengaging it's nuclear program. It removed the UN seals from the reactor. Words do have consequences and it was an extremely foolish speech.
It was so foolish "W" attempted to back peddle from it.
Dec. 7, 2017
By Helene Cooper
Washington, Dec. 6 — President Bush, (click here) directly engaging the man he publicly called a “tyrant,” wrote a letter to North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, in which he held out the prospect of normalized relations with the United States if North Korea fully disclosed its nuclear programs and dismantled its nuclear reactor, administration officials said Thursday....
...The proliferation issue has taken on new importance since an Israeli strike in Syria in September, which administration and Israeli officials say was conducted against a nuclear plant near the Euphrates River that was supplied with material from North Korea. Administration officials want North Korea to disclose what help it may have given Syria, although they also acknowledge that any such assistance occurred before North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear reactor and disclose its nuclear programs....
56th General Conference– Nuclear Verification in Syria (click here)
...Administration officials are walking something of a tightrope between pressing hard for the declaration and compromising with North Korean negotiators to get one and declare victory. Several senior officials said they were mindful of criticism from national security hawks in Washington, who do not want to see a deal go through because they do not believe that North Korea will abide by it.
“This is like Lucy and Charlie Brown and the football,” said John R. Bolton, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations. “How many times are we going to go through this with them?”
Bolton was just an egotistical idiot.
February 26, 2016
By Heesun Wee
...A key source of income (click here) is exported commodities, namely minerals. Other sources of cash flow include exported North Korean slave labor to China, and as far away as Europe. Plus, there's a growing financial ecosystem that crosses borders and includes the use of outside commercial banks, as well as front and shell companies. This expanding financial web allows the ruling elite to move money and acquire everything, from luxury goods to weapons of mass destruction components, according to United Nations documents, congressional testimony and research by North Korea experts....
The reason North Korea is successful in building more powerful bombs is due to the influence of it's new leader's ability to obtain money. Here a highly dangerous country, with it's people suffering in poverty is receiving funds from banks that are interested in making profits. Those ideas of profits will disappear as soon as any war should break out.
..."We can't expect North Korea to bargain its way out of the current attraction to nuclear weapons," Kirby told CNBC.com. "We have to continue to prepare for rendering accountable those who defy humanity and defy the institutions of humanity which include the [UN] Security Council, which has adopted very strong resolutions that North Korea has simply ignored."...
I like Christopher Hitchens. He speaks out, often to his own professional demise when affiliated with one news media or another. But, Mr. Hitchens is a detail person to understand the underlying reality of dangerous paths.
7 July 2017
...North Korea this week (click here) took a major step forward in its missile programme after test-launching an ICBM in defiance of the world.
The test, the first of its kind by North Korea, raised speculation the DPRK is now capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to places as far away as northern Australia and Alaska, blindsiding many who believed it was some way off getting this far.
New York-based political analyst and Asian specialist Sean King said things have suddenly got a lot more serious in regards to North Korea.
"The launch, a truly successful ICBM or not, is a long overdue wakeup call that's been decades in the making," he told news.com.au....
It was so foolish "W" attempted to back peddle from it.
Dec. 7, 2017
By Helene Cooper
Washington, Dec. 6 — President Bush, (click here) directly engaging the man he publicly called a “tyrant,” wrote a letter to North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, in which he held out the prospect of normalized relations with the United States if North Korea fully disclosed its nuclear programs and dismantled its nuclear reactor, administration officials said Thursday....
...The proliferation issue has taken on new importance since an Israeli strike in Syria in September, which administration and Israeli officials say was conducted against a nuclear plant near the Euphrates River that was supplied with material from North Korea. Administration officials want North Korea to disclose what help it may have given Syria, although they also acknowledge that any such assistance occurred before North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear reactor and disclose its nuclear programs....
56th General Conference– Nuclear Verification in Syria (click here)
...Administration officials are walking something of a tightrope between pressing hard for the declaration and compromising with North Korean negotiators to get one and declare victory. Several senior officials said they were mindful of criticism from national security hawks in Washington, who do not want to see a deal go through because they do not believe that North Korea will abide by it.
“This is like Lucy and Charlie Brown and the football,” said John R. Bolton, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations. “How many times are we going to go through this with them?”
Bolton was just an egotistical idiot.
February 26, 2016
By Heesun Wee
...A key source of income (click here) is exported commodities, namely minerals. Other sources of cash flow include exported North Korean slave labor to China, and as far away as Europe. Plus, there's a growing financial ecosystem that crosses borders and includes the use of outside commercial banks, as well as front and shell companies. This expanding financial web allows the ruling elite to move money and acquire everything, from luxury goods to weapons of mass destruction components, according to United Nations documents, congressional testimony and research by North Korea experts....
The reason North Korea is successful in building more powerful bombs is due to the influence of it's new leader's ability to obtain money. Here a highly dangerous country, with it's people suffering in poverty is receiving funds from banks that are interested in making profits. Those ideas of profits will disappear as soon as any war should break out.
..."We can't expect North Korea to bargain its way out of the current attraction to nuclear weapons," Kirby told CNBC.com. "We have to continue to prepare for rendering accountable those who defy humanity and defy the institutions of humanity which include the [UN] Security Council, which has adopted very strong resolutions that North Korea has simply ignored."...
I like Christopher Hitchens. He speaks out, often to his own professional demise when affiliated with one news media or another. But, Mr. Hitchens is a detail person to understand the underlying reality of dangerous paths.
7 July 2017
...North Korea this week (click here) took a major step forward in its missile programme after test-launching an ICBM in defiance of the world.
The test, the first of its kind by North Korea, raised speculation the DPRK is now capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to places as far away as northern Australia and Alaska, blindsiding many who believed it was some way off getting this far.
New York-based political analyst and Asian specialist Sean King said things have suddenly got a lot more serious in regards to North Korea.
"The launch, a truly successful ICBM or not, is a long overdue wakeup call that's been decades in the making," he told news.com.au....
