Friday, August 29, 2003
Hey, sounds like the North Korea talks are going about as one would expect them to.
North Korea threatens to test nuclear weapons - The Washington Times: World
The Pyongyang team later backed off its fierce rhetoric, the official said, and multilateral talks involving the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia aimed at ending the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula were continuing today.
The White House moved quickly to downplay the flare-up, with spokeswoman Claire Buchan saying North Korea had a history of making "inflammatory comments."
"The assessment from our team that's on the ground in Beijing is that this is a positive session," she said...
Yeesh...how can you tell?
Yeah, if the payout is right, they'll stop screaming - but how can you verify they're really complying? And what do you do if they don't? Sticky, sticky, sticky... How can there be long-term change without regime change, yet most of the world seems far more interested in using North Korea to balance the US with than make any substantive change that would be in everyone's best interests.
