PRESIDENT BUSH hasn’t been talking much about the ”axis of evil” lately. Instead, while touring Asia this week, he said he would be willing to offer North Korea a multilateral security guarantee in return for giving up its nuclear weapons program–precisely the sort of deal he once denounced as ”nuclear blackmail.” What’s going on? There are competing factions within the administration on North Korea policy, and the president seems to veer between seeking accommodation and regime change. Advocates of the former policy point out that a war would be costly under any circumstances and practically impossible now, when half our Army is tied down in Iraq. Advocates of the latter policy argue we can’t trust any deal struck with a regime that already violated a 1994 agreement.
Both sides are right, but the choice doesn’t have to be between war and appeasement. There’s a third way: seeking peaceful regime change.
