The U.S. envoy to the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, emerged in the early morning hours of Tuesday looking weary after a marathon 16-hour negotiating session and announced that a tentative deal had been struck at the latest round of six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program.
The draft agreement contained commitments on disarmament and energy assistance along with "initial actions" to be taken by certain deadlines, Hill said. Working groups will be set up, hopefully in a month, laying out a framework for dealing with regional tensions, he added.
I have to believe that the North Korean nuclear test was a fizzle and that they are worried about collapsing. If not, they'd wait until January 2009 to talk to a more cooperative government the way they waited for January 2005 to avoid talking to the Bush administration.
The alternative to believing the North Koreans are in tough shape is to believe we've caved in to North Korea's critical demands.
So we must wait to see the details. I have hoped that we will squeeze the North Koreans until they collapse. I hope that whatever agreement we make doesn't actually save them from that collapse. Can we calibrate our aid enough to look better but not actually reverse their crumbling?
I worry an agreement could save the Pillsbury Nuke Boy.
But I also don't want to be afraid to take yes for an answer if we can get the North Koreans to dismantle their nuclear weapons programs and verify that step.
That this could leave the North Korean people to suffer and die under this psychopath sickens me.
But I'm still enough of a realist to accept that our main fight is against the Islamofascists. North Korea is a member of the Axis of Evil only because their nuclear technology could be passed to jihadis or jihadi-supporting states.
I hope that we can topple the North Korean regime soon. I'll accept neutralizing them until the main fight is won. But I don't have to like that bargain with the Devil.
But this compromise with morality has yet to be verified as real. The North Koreans are perfectly capable of backing away. And Japan has yet to get satisfaction for the kidnapping of their citizens by North Koreans.
