Ennuipundit has a roundup of newspaper quotes, essentially stating that the Bush admin foreign policy has failed in NK, which may be argueably true. The odd thing is that NK is using a nuclear lever to get to bilateral NK/US talks, and so far the Bush admin has resisted this. Why? B/c a) we have no leverage with them, and b) it would elevate them to a place they shouldn't be, in the world of international relations.

And that is why it is so necessary to stand firm in the insistence that North Korea come back to the six-party talks. When a petulant child throws a temper tantrum, you don’t give in, because it teaches the child and other children to throw a tantrum to get their way.

The reason NK wants a bilateral discussion with the US can NOT be good, after they spent this much effort doing so. To me the only thing it could be is a) trade blackmail (ie, you give us weapons and food, or we'll bomb you), or b) withdraw support from SK, at which point they will promply invade and subjugate SK, and you can bet that would not be good for the citizens of SK (since they treat their current citizens so well!).


Technorati: North Korea