You Didn’t See Me Raising My Hand

I confess that I may be one degree more interested than The Marmot in those “crucial” talks between Stephen Bosworth and the North Koreans, for reasons I explain in this Hegemon post.

After all, it could have been worse. The State Department could have declared a “breakthrough.” Dreading this as I was, it wasn’t possible to maintain complete apathy. Every negotiation with North Korea is another chance for State to drive a Lexus to the car lot and limp home in a ’74 Pinto. The pro-engagement spin doctors are now trying to suggest that the visit reaffirmed some basic points of agreement, but they’re resting their hopes on the thin reed of a KCNA report’s apparently less-hostile-than-usual tone. Yet if the desires of Kim Jong Il stalkers in the foreign policy establishment had been requited at last, Bosworth wouldn’t be counseling “strategic patience.” Although North Korea did not commit to returning to six-nation talks, the Obama Administration has no plans to send Bosworth back for a second visit.

A friendly reminder: those who invest our nation’s counter-proliferation policy in the good faith of North Korean and Iranian negotiators are known as “realists.”