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  North Korea Smackdown  : Information Clearing House - ICH

  North Korea Smackdown  : Information Clearing House - ICH
After seven years of nonstop belligerence and saber rattling, the Bush administration has given North Korea everything it has demanded. In return, the US gets nothing. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, will not get access to Kim Jong-il's nuclear stockpile or its "Top-Secret" file on weapons programs or be allowed to conduct surprise "go anywhere, see anything" inspections. Kim will continue to develop his long-range ballistic-missile delivery system, the Taepodong 2, just as he will (presumably) continue to export nuclear weapons technology to allies in the Middle East and elsewhere. The Bush administration has made a very dangerous enemy and the present agreement does nothing to mitigate that threat. It merely sends a message to America's rivals around the world that the US can be blackmailed if the stakes are high enough. The United States has been humiliated by a man who many believe is an unstable megalomaniac and a ruthless tyrant. Was that the goal?

There was a time when George Bush would have nothing to do with Kim Jong-il, he privately scoffed at the reclusive dictator and called him "a pygmy" behind his back. He placed North Korea on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, froze their foreign bank accounts, refused to honor the terms of the Agreed Framework (which was negotiated by Bill Clinton) and threatened to take military action if Kim did not comply with US demands.

What a difference a few years and a few nuclear weapons make. Now the blustery bravado and swaggering insolence has changed to hand-wringing and hyperactive backroom diplomacy. The Bush team has suddenly shifted from its ritual chest-thumping into damage-control mode, but the change comes too late.

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