Bush should talk to N. Korea

Published in Chapel Hill Herald; December 24, 2003

When my children were in preschool, the teachers had a simple rule to prevent fighting: ?Use your words.? Unfortunately, our president seems to have forgotten, or perhaps never known, about this principle.

The sympathy our nation gained after Sept. 11 has evaporated, leaving nation after nation angry with the United States.

The latest electorate to makea statement against the Bush foreign policy is South Korea, which elected Roh Moo-Hyun on a platform of dialogue with North Korea. ?Many South Koreans believe Bush, who has ruled out talks with Pyongyang unless it abandons its nuclear development, is an obstacle to reconciliation with North Korea.? (Herald-Sun, Dec. 19)

We of the Chapel Hill Friends? Meeting (Quaker) Committee for a Non-Violent Response to Terrorism agree. We urge our representatives, David Price, John Edwards and Elizabeth Dole, to call on President Bush to negotiate with North Korea.

If the very nation most ?threatened? by North Korea is willing to talk, we should be, too. President Bush ? use your words.

Tom Munk, for CANVRT