I highly recommend this blog posting from Stephen F. Hayes that summarizes quite well the United States’ North Korea policy headed by Christopher Hill:
Do you ever get the sense that if North Korea actually used a nuclear weapon in an offensive attack that Chris Hill and the State Department would still be trying to make a deal?
In response to the latest provocation from the North Koreans, Hill and his colleagues are proposing a new “choreography” for the futile negotiations. Dancing seems somehow appropriate at this stage, given the stories about Hill’s collegial drinking with his North Korean counterparts and his friendly toasts to honor them. (”We pulled out all the stops,” one US diplomat told author Mike Chinoy about the festivities.)
It’s hardly worth going back over all of the twists and turns of US-North Korean nuclear diplomacy in order to look at the Bush administration’s current embarrassing position. The pattern has been set, with relatively minor interruptions of sanity, since 1994: the US makes tough-sounding threats, North Korea cheats/provokes/lies, the US expresses disappointment and then offers second-chances accompanied by generous concessions. [The Weekly Standard via One Free Korea]
Make sure to read the whole thing.
Popularity: 1%
5:51 pm on October 7th, 2008 1
The critics — including myself — have been predicting for a year that everytime Chris Hill goes through this same routine of shuttle diplomacy its his “last dance.” The fact is getting very obvious that the US does NOT want a confrontation and is not willing to support any move that will lead to it. Thus Chris Hill keeps waltzing on and will continue to do so into the next administration.
8:05 am on October 10th, 2008 2
[...] they will actually disarm. So far I haven’t heard anything from either of them that will break the pattern that has seen with relatively minor interruptions of sanity, since 1994 of the US making [...]