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Carter Says Claim That North Korea Cheated `Completely False'
(Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration claim that North Korea cheated or reneged on a 1994 agreement with the U.S. to freeze its nuclear program is ``completely false and ridiculous,'' former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said. Carter, a Democrat who helped broker the agreement with the North Koreans on behalf of then-President Bill Clinton, said the pact was ``observed pretty well by both sides'' for eight years.
``It lasted until 2002 when the United States in effect abandoned that agreement and branded North Korea as an axis of evil,'' Carter, 82, said.
``It lasted until 2002 when the United States in effect abandoned that agreement and branded North Korea as an axis of evil,'' Carter, 82, said in an interview to be broadcast this weekend on ``Conversations with Judy Woodruff'' on Bloomberg Television.

Carter also said the U.S. further undermined the agreement by condemning summit meetings that took place in 2000 between North Korea and South Korea. President George W. Bush said on Oct. 11, two days after North Korea tested a nuclear bomb, that the 1994 agreement ``just didn't work.'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Oct. 10 said the North Koreans ``cheated'' on that agreement. Bush and Rice also said such a history justified the administration's refusal to talk directly with North Korea and instead urged the Asian nation to return to six-nation disarmament talks.
Posted by: Fred 2006-11-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=170759