I guess no one can accuse Condeleeza Rice of not being an optimist:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview on Sunday that the United States did not trust North Korea and as a result was pushing for strict procedures to ensure the regime abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Asked by a NBC television reporter if the US administration had placed too much trust in North Korea in six-party talks, as some US conservative commentators have charged, Rice said: “No, and of course we didn’t trust them.”

“What we are negotiating is a verification protocol because nobody does trust them. And in fact, if you look at the agreement that was signed in September of 2005, it committed the North to de-nuclearization within a context of the Six Parties,” Rice told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”  (….)

“A lot has been achieved here,” Rice said. “I think more will be achieved.”  [Reuters]

I am trying to think what has been achieved?  The only thing that comes to mind is that North Korea blew up a cooling tower in the Yongbyon facility that was reportedly so old and decrepit that the facility can no longer be used to safely process plutonium anyway.  Rice has done absolutely nothing to stop the completion of the 50 megawatt reactor the North Koreans are reportedly close to completing that would replace the older Yongbyon. You can see satellite images of the site here.

What did North Korea get for demolishing one cooling tower in a facility too old to use anyway?  Well tons of fuel oil, millions of dollars in free money, and removal from the US’s State Sponsors of Terrorism List.  And oh by the way they still have the nuclear bombs they currently have.

Anyway here is a statement from Rice that I agree with:

She added: “It’s really only going to be achieved in the context of the six parties,” because if not “then the North can play the game that they used to play of getting benefits from other parts of the international community and refusing to carry forward on its obligations.”

However, Rice has not kept to this principle herself with Christopher Hill cutting bi-lateral deals with the North Koreans and at the same time alienating the Japanese contingent who are part of the six party talks by ignoring their requests for the North Koreans to come clean on the issue of kidnapped Japanese citizens.

As bad as the Bush Administration’s North Korea policy has been they do have one last chance to not go out with a whimper, but I am not optimistic.