MSNBC: Roh Moo Hyun, the new South Korea president, said Kim was threatening to develop nuclear weapons because he had "no other bargaining chips … Without this bargaining chip, Kim Jong Il does not have any other means of convincing his people that they are safe."
Translation: without nukes, Kim has no means of convincing his people that he can continue terrorizing and running his slave labor camps.
"If I mention the North Korean human rights situation, it will not help to improve the human rights conditions in North Korea."
Translation: "I can’t mention the NK human rights situation becuase I don’t want to remind the world that I won my presidency by supporting ‘reunification’ with a brutal dictatorship."
"Rather than confronting or opposing them politically, it is better to have dialogue with the regime to fundamentally solve this problem."
Translation: "Appeasement worked with Hitler and Saddam, why shouldn’t it work with Kim?"
"The reason I cannot say I agree with [the possiblity of attacking NK] in public is because it would become an unstable factor for the Korean economy."
Translation: "The reason I cannot say I agree with the possiblity of attacking NK in public is because it would become an unstable factor for my presidency."
or: "The reason I cannot say I agree with the possiblity of attacking NK in public is because a communist dictatorship is obviously better for the Korean economy than capitalism."
"[The United States'] strong military presence in northeast Asia still scares North Korea."
Translation: "I like to pretend to sympathize with those who resent the US troops that are keeping my country from being wiped out by North Korean nukes."