John Bolton: Bill Clinton Close To Negotiating With Terrorists
This frame grab from South Korean television taken in Seoul shows former US President Bill Clinton(R) and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Il posing for a picture in Pyongyang.Clinton arrived in North Korea on a surprise mission to free two jailed American journalists, the highest-profile visit by an American to Pyongyang for nearly a decade
The Obama administration is rewarding North Korea for its bad behavior by sending ex-president Bill Clinton to Pyongyang to win the release of two US journalists, the former US ambassador to the UN said Tuesday.
John Bolton, an outspoken hardliner in the previous administration of George W. Bush, told AFP that Clinton’s mission to Pyongyang undermines a number of public stands held by his own wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists,” Bolton told AFP when asked about Bill Clinton’s trip to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.
The pair were sentenced in June to 12 years in a labor camp for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified “grave crime,” after they were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 while working on a story.
“I think this is a very bad signal because it does exactly what we always try and avoid doing with terrorists, or with rogue states in general, and that’s encouraging their bad behavior,” Bolton said.
In a US television interview here on July 26, Secretary Clinton warned North Korea that even its traditional allies had turned against it and that the communist state’s rogue behavior will no longer “be rewarded.”
Bolton also scoffed the White House’s contention that Bill Clinton’s visit is “solely a private mission” when he said “this is a former president who is married to the secretary of state. There’s nothing private about this.”
Remember this was the same President who sent his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to visit Kim Jong-Il with a Michael Jordan autographed basketball.
North Korea Leader Kim Jong-Il and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
Exit question: What is this diplomatic gesture by Bill Clinton going to cost the United States?
Technorati Tags: Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Kim Jong-Il, Barack Obama, North Korea
9 Comments
Technology Slice
Good on Bill Clinton for helping free those people.
Pingback:
Joann
Diplomacy is great! Thumbs up to Bill Clinton, Al Gore and the Obama administration. Good job.
Joann
Diplomacy is great!
David
Very nice John ! Clinton managed to secure a miraculous release for these woman and all you can do is grumble about negotiating with terrorists. Would you prefer they were just abandoned to their fate? So glad you don’t have influence over anything.
nonnie9999
this was a masterstroke of diplomacy. if you don’t think so, perhaps you should go back to dentistry. you might want to tell orly taitz the same.
Flap
Master stroke? Only if you like appeasing nefarious dictators and terrorists.
OK Moon
To bring back two journalists is good news for their family.But not so good for the world peace.
Why not nip rogue despot’s bad behavior in the bud.He will repeat the same thing in the future.
Alton Zumbrennen
Seriously This is pretty sweet content, I don’t entirely agree but I am still interested in this.