NORTH KOREA UPDATE….Apparently there’s some movement on North Korea:
The Bush administration has agreed with South Korea and Japan to a broadly worded set of principles to end North Korea’s nuclear program, calling for a “coordinated” set of steps in which five nations would offer the North a security guarantee as it begins a verifiable disassembly of its nuclear facilities, according to administration and Asian officials.
This sounds like good news, although, as usual, the devil is in the details. It might not go anywhere.
Once again, though, I’m left with a couple of questions:
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If we’re willing to make this deal now, why weren’t we willing to make this deal a year ago?
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How will conservatives manage to spin this as something different from what Democrats have been proposing for the past year? Trading a security agreement for verifiable disarmament sure sounds like what we’ve been suggesting all along, but I’m sure there’s some subtle difference related to George Bush’s toughminded adherence to principle that we liberals are blind to.
I suppose someone will set me straight soon enough.
