South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is in the United States meeting President Bush. Said Lee:
"I believe if North Korea's declaration is not satisfactory or if the verification is not satisfactory, we could probably have a temporary achievement, but in the long term, that will cause a lot more serious problems," Lee said.
"North Korea's declaration of their nuclear weapons program should be complete and correct, and verification — I'm not sure how long that is going to take. ... All the parties of the six-party talks are with one mind that the verification process must be full and complete and satisfactory."
President Bush assured all that he is not looking to come to a paper agreement that we can pretend solves the problem until the next president discovers that North Korea is cheating.
I believe him. And I believe our strengthened ties with South Korea will help us apply more pressure on North Korea to collapse that regime.
