I've been hearing for a long time now that North Korea differs from us by having a crazy man (Kim Jong-il) in charge. This, of course, is why that country can't be trusted with nuclear weapons.
On Saturday, Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of McClatchy newspapers reported the following:
...North Korea is in a far stronger negotiating position than it was in 2002 when Bush halted heavy fuel oil shipments. That prompted Pyongyang to expel IAEA inspectors; withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of the international arms control system; and end a freeze on operating the Yongbyon reactor, which the Clinton administration had negotiated in 1994.
So ... in 1994 the Clinton administration negotiated a quid pro quo agreement with North Korea under which they did not process plutonium nor build nuclear weapons and we provided them with heavy fuel oil and other considerations to make up for their withdrawal from the nuclear materials race. Then, in 2002, George Bush decided to unilaterally abrogate our side of the agreement, expecting ... what? That the North Koreans would sit there, docilely, waiting for us to finish our process of régime change in Iraq and get around to purging them, the second ball bearing on the Axis of Evil?
I don't think that it's Kim Jong-il who is crazy; despite a tendency for his puppet avatar in Team America to behave that way, the man did exactly what I would have done in his place — taken steps to protect himself and his country — and I don't think that I'm crazy. No, based on that 2002 decision that killed a successful attempt to keep nuclear weapons out of yet another country's hands, I would say that if there's any national leader involved in this who's a certifiable nutcase, it's not Kim Jong-il this time. We should look closer to home.