You can imagine the scene in the Oval Office. “Mr President,” says Kurt Campbell, US assistant secretary of state for east Asia. “I thought you should see this dispatch from Kathleen Stephens – you know, our ambassador to Seoul, Sir. She says that a guy named Chun Yung-woo, South Korea’s vice-foreign minister, was speaking to a Chinese official who said that, get this Sir, North Korea has ‘little value to China as a buffer state’.” Mr Campbell pauses to let the significance of the fourth-hand statement sink in.
你可以想象一下白宮橢圓形辦公室里發(fā)生的一幕。“總統(tǒng)先生，”美國東亞事務(wù)助理國務(wù)卿科特?坎貝爾(Kurt Campbell)說。“我想您應(yīng)該過目一下我們駐韓大使凱瑟琳?斯蒂芬斯(Kathleen Stephens)發(fā)來的這封電報。大使說，據(jù)韓國一個名叫千英宇(Chun Yung-woo)副外長稱，一位中國官員在和他交談時表示，‘就安全屏障而言，朝鮮現(xiàn)在對中國幾乎已經(jīng)沒有什么價值’。”坎貝爾頓了頓，讓總統(tǒng)充分意識到這一第四手聲明的份量。