February 27, 2004

Six-Nation Nuclear Talks to End Saturday

Another round of six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program will end Saturday without achieving a significant breakthrough, but delegates tentatively agreed to try again by April 30, news reports and Chinese officials said Friday.

As the WSJ stated today in it's editorial page, there's nothing for it but complete Régime Change in North Korea.
How this is to be effected only time will tell.
President Bush did tell the nation on Sept. 20, 2001 that rogue nations who sponsored terrorism in general, and the Axis of Evil countries in particular, would be dealth with on a case-by-case basis.
Trying to talk or "negotiate" with the NorKs is clearly pointless: they change their minds and their positions only slightly more often than Dimocrat presidential candidate John F'n Kerry.
I don't know why we don't bring this matter to the attention of the UN Security Council--not that they'd do anything about North Korea's problematic regime, but so that it would set the accepted "multilateral" process in motion to deal with a rogue regime that is both proliferating and abusing the human rights of its citizens.
(Yep. The old Saddam song-and dance.)
Kim Jong-Il reads American papers, too, and he's betting the farm that either Bush will lose in November (God forbid.) or that the Dims will hassle President Bush so much about "preemption" that nothing will happen to the Juche régime, except for the imposition of some watered-down, ignorable UN sanctions.
My worry is that the Bobble-headed one may be right.
Time for the West to take the gloves off and lay down the law.
Paging President Bush/Sheriff Shane.