One thing is for sure, the new Obama administration is not running short on advice on what to do in regards to North Korea.  The latest advice is coming from noted North Korea scholar Richard Saccone:

We must move away from the adversarial approach and toward a collaborative mind-set, firm but fair. If we learned anything from the old era of the Agreed Framework begun under the Clinton administration, it was that, contrary to conventional wisdom, North Koreans are logical and determined thinkers who argue toe-to-toe on issues but respond positively to clearly defined proposals, kept in good faith and delivered in a spirit of cooperation. Now is the time to initiate this new approach. This is not theory, it works.  [Rocky Mountain News]

Adversarial?  The Bush administration policy hasn’t been adversarial for literally years now.  Their policy was one of giving North Korea nearly everything they wanted, even if it meant laundering counterfeit money for them.

As far as North Korea responding to clearly defined proposals this is also incorrect.  Almost immediately after signing the Clinton Agreed Frameworkd the North Koreans began cheating on the deal with their covert Uranium program.

After signing the Bush administration’s Agreed Frameworld 2.0 they immediately began making demands that were not in the original deal such as the return of their counterfeit money seized by the US Treasury Department.  It is pretty clear North Koreans cannot be trusted to keep their end of a deal and they do this because the US government allows them to keep getting away with it with no repercussions.

Saccone in the article also recommends a new face to lead the negotiations which I agree with because Chris Hill has been a disaster, however the names that keep popping up as North Korea envoys in the Obama administration are worse then even Chris Hill.

Finally, Saccone recommends that a US liason office be opened in the North Korean capitol Pyongyang.  I’m not instantly opposed to this idea if it is opened in response to a concession from Pyongyang, such as the return of the USS Pueblo.  The US should not open a liason office in a country that remains the only one in the world to hold a commissioned US naval vessel hostage.