Obama Cabinet Watch

We have a few more signs to read in trying to perceive what kind of North Korea policy we can expect from the Obama Administration:

– Predictably, North Korea is trying to hit “reset” in its negotiations with the United States, in the hope of exchanging the same yet-to-be broken promises for a whole new round of concessions. Having gotten pretty much everything it wanted from Chris Hill, all that’s left to demand is the establishment of full diplomatic relations. Of course, that would be reversing the sequence of Agreed Framework 2.0, but since when does anyone expect North Korea to abide by its promises? All of which makes you wonder why we ask them to promise anything at all.

– It’s good to know that North Korea is still less acceptable in polite society than Rick Warren or Eugene Robinson. Inaugurations are unlikely places to signal major policy shifts.

– One thinly sourced piece in the Chosun Ilbo says that Obama will make North Korea a low priority, which is yet more evidence of the new administration’s continuity with the old one. North Korea has a talent for capturing the attention of inattentive American presidents. Maybe in six years, Obama will execute a stunning policy reversal and task some low-level diplomat with bankrupting the regime (hey, the opposite happened).

Related: When Bush departs office conceding that North Korea is still a threat, we can safely describe his second-term North Korea policy as an acknowledged failure. But for something really entertaining, read the transcript of Dick Cheney shifting uncomfortably in his chair and trying not to gloat as Stephen Hayes asks him to assess its results. Don’t miss that one.