NYTimes: Norks Have 'Right' to Nukes

From the paper’s esteemed editors:

Before Mr. Bush spoke, the State Department announced that the United States and its partners would halt deliveries of heavy fuel oil because Pyongyang refused to agree, in writing, on a plan for verifying its nuclear stockpile and facilities. China and Russia insisted that they had not agreed to any such decision. South Korea said it would delay shipping steel plates for North Korean power stations. Japan was already reneging on its commitment to supply fuel aid, and Australia, which had stepped into the breach, announced that it would withhold its contribution. If the shipments stop, North Korea would be within its rights to stop disabling its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and resume producing plutonium for weapons. That would present Mr. Obama with an immediate crisis.

According to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, all countries have the right to “develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposesâ€¦in conformity with Articles I and II of the Treaty.” Of course, North Korea became the first country ever to withdraw from that treaty in 2003. Apparently it is the position of the editors at the Times that the North Korean regime therefore has an inherent right to produce nuclear weapons failing sufficient American bribes of food and fuel. One hopes that is not a view shared by Barack Obama. The United States may cut a deal with the North Korean regime in order to reduce the threat to our allies in the region, but it will be a deal with the devil — and surely one that we would be within our rights to break at the first opportunity to rid the world of the Kim family.

NYTimes: Norks Have ‘Right’ to Nukes

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