Peter Beck
Peter Beck
looks page taken tehran
It looks like Tehran has taken a page out of Pyongyang's brinkmanship playbook.
darker moving north slowly towards
It's getting darker by the day. We are slowly moving towards a showdown with North Korea.
embrace north shows surface
It shows at least on the surface that the North would like to embrace China's reforms.
accepted agreed disagree korea member north parties time
The two parties agreed to disagree and papered over the differences. It will take a long time before North Korea will be accepted as a responsible member of the international community, at least 2 years.
city finish hate
I told him that if he wins, he'll still need to finish his homework... I'd hate to have to suspend a city official.
alter costs course expect greatly large potential risks three
The potential costs and risks for all three governments are too large to expect any one of them to alter course greatly
believe both help imports loosen mexican parts south southeast supply
We believe that's going to significantly loosen up imports of Mexican cement, which I think will help not only with construction of hurricane-ravaged parts of the gulf, but also the South and Southeast both with supply and pricing.
assume certainly economic external learn photo purely special zones
Were (Kim's trip) purely for external consumption, there certainly would have been some photo ops. We have to assume that this was educational to learn how special economic zones function.
aid confidence dealing food foreign manage reflects terms
There's a new assertiveness in terms of dealing with the foreign aid community, ... That reflects a confidence that they can better manage their food situation.
bottom easily food line looking public push
The bottom line is, they are many years away from food self-sufficiency. If they push the public distribution too far, they could easily be looking at another famine.
I think it's a nonstarter. It's not even a deal-breaker,
bring help korea north serious sure ultimately visit
I think the visit will ultimately help them bring North Korea back to the table, but I'm not sure Pyongyang is serious about negotiating.
almost bringing convince examples military reforms trying
When he went in 2001, it was almost exclusively military people. He was trying to convince them of the need for reform. Now, if he's bringing technocrats, he's trying to give examples of how reforms could take place.
interested rather taking
What I'm interested in is who he's taking with him, rather than where he's going.