File this in the ever-growing “it-would-be-funny-if-it-weren’t-so-serious” that characterizes the Bush administration’s second-term foreign policy. After North Korea publicly promised earlier this week to restore its nuclear facilities “to their original state,” senior US negotiator Chris Hill characterized the move as North Korea striking a “very tough negotiating position.” The Agence France Presse headline notes: “US bewildered, disappointed over North Korean nuclear defiance.” How is it that anyone could possible find themselves “bewildered” by North Korean nuclear defiance? And yet that is where Condoleezza Rice and the White House find themselves these days. “The North Korean actions are very disappointing and run counter to the expectations of the members of the six party talks and the international community,” said a White House spokesman earlier this week. If the North Korean actions “run counter to the expectations” of the Bush administration and others facilitating the appeasement, they were utterly predictable to anyone who has read the newspaper regularly for the past decade. Here’s a three-sentence summary of just the past two years: In October 2006, North Korea tested a nuclear weapon and earned the condemnation of the world and stern warnings from the Bush administration. Then, last spring, after promising better behavior, North Korea was caught proliferating nuclear technology to Syria, the world’s second-leading state sponsor of terror, and the Bush administration, after keeping this information secret for months in order to protect its diplomatic efforts with Kim Jong Il, once again thundered warnings against further nuclear development and proliferation. Then, in a triumph of the diplomacy of dreams, the Bush administration proposed even more concessions — offering to lift key economic sanctions on North Korea and remove the rogue regime from the list of state sponsors of terror. And now, to the surprise of few outside the State Department, North Korea has refused to honor its obligations under the six-party talks and seems as determined as ever to continue its nuclear program. So how long until the State Department offers new concessions?
