The two articles below clearly show how the administration’s foreign policy is compromised by incompetence in his cabinet and his “leadership”. As the country moves into even more critical times, I find myself hoping that our military will not let our country be destroyed by this pretender-in-chief.
David DeGerolamo
North Korea pledges to halt nuclear programme in exchange for US aid
Washington promises food aid for first time since 2009, with Hillary Clinton hoping new leadership will ‘guide nation to peace’.
North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear missile tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches in exchange for 240,000 tonnes of US food aid.
North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear missile tests and uranium enrichment, and submit to international monitoring, in return for US food aid.
Washington described the deal, which breaks with the US’s previous assertion that large-scale deliveries of food are not tied to North Korea curbing its nuclear programme, as “important, if limited”.
Under the agreement, which was hammered out in Beijing, North Korea will suspend nuclear weapons tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launch. It will also allow the return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors who were forced to leave North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor three years ago.
For its part, the US will provide 240,000 tonnes of food for the first time since deliveries were suspended in 2009.
Washington also affirmed it does not have hostile intentions toward North Korea and is prepared to take steps to improve relations. Diplomats said it was an important move in assuring Pyongyang the US is not intent on bringing down the communist regime.
China assisting North Korean missile program: Panetta
China has provided some assistance to North Korea’s missile program, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday, a week after the hermit state’s failed rocket launch triggered international condemnation.
Under United Nations Security Council resolutions from 2006 and 2009, states, including China, are banned from helping North Korea with its ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities as well as supplying heavy weapons.
Beijing has denied it has broken any rules, although a modern missile transporter seen in Sunday’s military parade to celebrate the founder of North Korea was said by some western military experts to be of Chinese design and possibly origin.
“I’m sure there’s been some help coming from China. I don’t know, you know, the exact extent of that,” Panetta told members of the House Armed Services Committee when asked whether China had been supporting North Korea’s missile program through “trade and technology exchanges”.
