New U.S. Ambassador To S. Korea Angers The North

The new U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, used some un-diplomatic language last Tuesday to describe North Korea. He mentioned perennial U.S. complaints such as drug trafficking, money-laundering, and counterfeiting allegedly conducted by the North. Vershbow summed up his appraisal with the phrase "this is a criminal regime."

All these statements are doubtlessly true, but it is bad form for a career diplomat (Vershbow is no political appointee) to venture so far from customary protocol unless ordered to do so by one's bosses. This means that the kooks in the Cheney/Rumsfeld axis are still holding the floor in making U.S. policy toward the "difficult" North.

North Korea naturally could not overlook the tongue-lashing. Today they have issued their response. The North termed Vershbow's words "a sort of provocative declaration of a war" and threatened to "mercilessly retaliate against it," according to a news report:

Calling such U.S. allegations "sheer lies," the North's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that "the prospect of the six-party talks' resumption and progress will entirely depend on the U.S. attitude."

The spokesman accused Washington of making "scenarios to deter (North Korea) from going to the six-party talks and lead them to a final collapse," according to KCNA.

(...)

Vershbow's comment also drew criticism from South Korea, which has actively engaged the heavily militarized North since a summit between their leaders in 2000.

"It's not desirable to publicly characterize the other side," Song Min-soon, South Korea's chief negotiator at the six-party talks, told The Associated Press in Malaysia.

Another report suggests what might be Vershbow's fate if North Korea had it's way:

The North Korean committee spokesman said South Koreans should force Vershbow to stand at a central traffic intersection in Seoul, "punish him in the name of the nation and immediately expel him from their land".

Vershbow, of course, will not be quaking in his boots over the North's disapproval, but this incident is yet another sign of the cavalier approach that Cheney and Rumsfeld have been taking towards a very dangerous adversary. It was our Iraq distraction that allowed North Korea to boldly step up their nuclear weapons program.

It would be in no one's interest to allow the paranoid North Koreans to misinterpret a statement which Washington most likely sees as ordinary political posturing. The North holds some serious cards now in east Asia, and we should be trying to keep them at the table, rather than inciting them to pack up their chips and begin another game.