On behalf of the world and our nation, we are extremely pleased and offer our sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Department of State, the National Security Council and our President George W. Bush for the completion and success of the 5 nation talks to de-nuclearize North Korea. North Korea has accepted an agreement to disable and render harmless its nuclear facilities in 60 days as part of a two phase agreement with China, Japan, South Korea, the United States of America and Russia. In return for abiding by this agreement, North Korea receives 1 million tons of fuel collectively given by the five countries in the agreement. The United States outlay for this diplomatic agreement is approximately 120 million dollars worth of grain and medical supplies given to the countries in the agreement to exchange for fuel. This expense which the United States is giving is already available and funded through the United States AID (Agency for International Development) and does not come from any new expenditures or authorization from Congress.
MDAA strongly endorses this approach of peaceful diplomatic means of making the Korean Peninsula, as well as the neighboring countries and regions safer from nuclear proliferation. It is a world wide statement from our President not to resort to military action or pre-emptive strike to solve this volatile and complex issue with a challenging dictator.
It is resoundingly clear that the United States deployment and continued development of Missile Defense assets this past summer in lieu of the North Korean ballistic missile launches and its denotation of a nuclear weapon this past fall was part of the diplomatic solution. The ground based interceptors in Alaska and California, along with the several Aegis ships carrying sea based missile defense interceptors patrolling off the waters of North Korea in combination with the series of successful missile defense tests this past year sent North Korea a clear message of defense, dissuasion and deterrence that helped enabled the diplomatic solution. Because of our Missile Defense, the United States was able to be more flexible to compromise with the demands of North Korea. The investment spent on Missile Defense by our country was well worth the linkage to reduce proliferation and make that region of the world a safer place.
MDAA extends our memberships’ gratitude and recognition for the bold leadership of The Peoples Republic of China in leading the pressure that no other country could do to bring North Korea to the accord. We must also give credit to our President who forged the relationship with the President of China and articulately convinced the Chinese that it was in their best interests to bring closure to North Korea peacefully.
MDAA and its members take personal satisfaction as being honored to be included in the beginnings of the now assured diplomatic accord with the President of the United States and his National Security Team this past October when this subject was discussed, thought out and briefed in the Roosevelt room with the President. Click here to read more.
It is of merit that we must, as a nation, continue to invest in missile defense and continue to deploy these systems around the world, as though the accord is successful, there will be a time when the 1 million tons of fuel will be not enough and hunger for more will drive irrational acts of world proportion.
