Did They or Didn’t They?

I took a few days off from blogging and figured by today I’d know if Chris Hill had succeeded in giving away the store to the North Koreans, but the reporting today is ambiguous.   

The New York Times says that Hill left Pyongyang with the main “issues unresolved” but quotes or cites no  hard authority  to substantiate this.   The Chosun Ilbo quotes “observers” who  see “signs” that Hill’s visit  “produced some results,” and also quotes or cites no hard authority to substantiate its version. 

The impression this leaves is that the North Koreans told us what the deal was going to be — the pro-North Korean mouthpiece Chosun Sinbo  called it an “ultimatum” — and we’re still thinking it over.  Reuters reports that the North Korean terms included a demand for more  (wait for it) “compensation.” 

Expect a decision from the Bush administration the first week of November.