Carter Enters the Nuclear Crisis

Prior Posting: The Costs of War in Korea

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The diplomatic approach that the Clinton administration was trying to use was much like today’s current North Korean nuclear crisis where the administration wanted to refer the North Koreans to the UN Security Council in order to impose sanctions. However, sanctions would not work without the help of the Chinese who provided most of the natural resources and food for the North Koreans and held a veto on the Security Council. In order to get the Chinese on his side, Bill Clinton on May 29, 1994 granted Most Favored Nation trading status to the Chinese without human rights conditions. It worked and the Chinese told the North Koreans that they could not count on a Chinese veto in the security council against sanctions.

In response to this news, the North Koreans withdrew from the IAEA and expelled what remaining nuclear inspectors were left in North Korea. This is where Selig Harrison comes into the picture. For those who don’t follow Korean affairs closely, Harrison is a well known Pyongyang cheerleader and America basher that parades as a scholar and author of all things Korean. The North Koreans confided in Harrison that they would be willing to give up their current nuclear program if the United States built them light water nuclear reactors that would not provide the fuel to make nuclear weapons but would solve the North Korean’s energy needs. When Harrison arrived back to Seoul with his news, few in the ROK government were as optimistic as he was. In fact the ROK government had begun wide range civil defense drills in preparation for war. Plus another American apologist for the North Koreans had just shown up as well that irritated the South Koreans, Jimmy Carter.

Carter has long had a negative image in the minds of Korea’s policy makers because he had tried so hard during his failed presidency to withdraw all the US soldiers from the Korean peninsula against the wishes of the South Korean government. Now here was again trying to decide the fate of the Korean peninsula on his own. In fact President Kim Young-sam said that Carter’s trip was “ill timed” and only helped the North Korean’s “stalling tactics”. Plus the Clinton Administration wasn’t keen on the trip either insisting that he only go as a private citizen and not as a messenger of the US government. None of this mattered to Carter however, because he was eager to get his legacy and making peace on the Korean peninsula was going to be it.

Next Posting: Carter’s Deal