NYT: Pact With North Korea Draws Fire From a Wide Range of Critics in U.S. [View All]

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Pact With North Korea Draws Fire From a Wide Range of Critics in U.S.
By HELENE COOPER and JIM YARDLEY
Published: February 14, 2007

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The deal that could lead North Korea to shut its main nuclear reactor came under criticism from both ends of the political spectrum immediately after it was announced on Tuesday.

From the right, hardliners argued that the United States should have held out until North Korea agreed to fully declare and dismantle its entire nuclear program.

From the left, Democrats argued that the deal was no better than one they said the United States could have gotten four years ago, before North Korea tested a nuclear bomb....Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, said the deal “takes us back to the future.”

“The good news is that it freezes in place North Korea’s nuclear program,” said Mr. Biden, who has declared his intention to run for president. “The bad news is that North Korea’s program is more dangerous to us now than it was in 2002, when President Bush rejected virtually the same deal he is now embracing.”

From the other end of the spectrum, John R. Bolton, who until December served under (Condoleezza) Rice as the United States ambassador to the United Nations, criticized the pact as too weak, telling CNN that it “contradicts fundamental premises” of the administration’s approach to North Korea during the past six years. Mr. Bolton, when in the administration, had argued in favor of a hard-line approach to North Korea....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/world/asia/14korea.html