Yet another person from the Clinton Presidency has been added to President Obama’s administration:

Stephen Bosworth

Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is expected to be named as the U.S. envoy to six-party talks on curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The sources spoke on condition they not be identified, noting that the selection of the envoy was a sensitive matter ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China next week.

Bosworth, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, declined comment on whether he would be tapped to lead the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks, which also include the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia.

Under those talks, North Korea agreed in 2005 to abandon all its nuclear programs.

However, Pyongyang tested a nuclear device in 2006, has been slow to carry out agreements on disabling its plutonium program and has refused to commit to a verification regime, leaving the multilateral process stalled.

A State Department spokesman declined comment on whether Bosworth would be chosen as U.S. envoy to the talks.  [Reuters]

Here is some background on Mr. Bosworth, he was the US ambassador to South Korea between 1997-2000 and before becoming the ambassador he was the executive director of the failed Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization that accomplished little to nothing.  Since his ambassadorship he has mostly been working as the Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Bosworth’s views on North Korea amount to an American version of the Sunshine Policy:

But our recent trip to the North Korean capital suggests that the current controversy conceals more fundamental issues in U.S. relations with North Korea: unlike the United States, Pyongyang has both a short- and long-term policy toward its antagonist. It is willing to bargain away its nuclear-weapons programs piece by piece starting now, but only in return for a new, nonhostile relationship with Washington and more help for its economy. Washington, by contrast, has focused solely on the issue of denuclearization (and even on that Washington remains divided) and has no broader approach to North Korea. It falls to the next administration, one hopes, to devise a strategy toward Pyongyang that addresses both the nuclear program and the long-term question of how to deal with the weak but dangerous nation.   [Stephen Bosworth - Newsweek]

His first failed assumption is that North Korea wants to give up its nuclear weapons for a new relationship with Washington.  North Korea has no intentions of giving up its nuclear weapons for a variety of reasons.  North Korea wants to be given goodies and political recognition for little or nothing in return. That is their track record and I would love to see someone prove otherwise.

Bosworth in the Newsweek article even suggests that the US should ignore North Korea’s nuclear proliferation to Syria.  He even totally ignores North Korea’s secret uranium program as if it doesn’t even exist though even Hillary Clinton now admits it does.  Most notably is that Bosworth does not mention one iota about North Korean human rights.  It is interesting that as much as the left claims it cares about human rights, when it comes to North Korea they could care less for whatever reason.  Amnesty International is the best example of this.

Anyway just last week Bosworth made a “private trip” to North Korea:

North Korean officials have expressed willingness to move forward with long-stalled denuclearization talks and have downplayed recent reports that the regime is preparing to test-fire a long-range missile, a former U.S. diplomat said Saturday after a private visit to Pyongyang.

The message given to former envoy Stephen Bosworth was in contrast to North Korea’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric recently. Over the past few weeks, Pyongyang has announced it would scrap peace agreements with South Korea, warned the divided peninsula was on the brink of war and appeared to be preparing to test a missile capable of reaching the western United States.

Bosworth, the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and now an academic, said the officials he met with kept an upbeat tone regarding the nuclear talks and a willingness to talk to President Barack Obama’s administration.

“We can continue to work towards eventual denuclearization of Korean peninsula,” Bosworth said after arriving at Beijing’s international airport. “They understand the Obama administration will need some time to sort itself through the policy review and they expressed patience, there is no sense of alarm or urgency.”  [Associated Press]

I seriously doubt that was a private trip considering he became the North Korean nuclear envoy a week later.  He had to have delivered a message from the Obama administration, which I am speculating was along the lines of behave until we get through the economic slump and then we will pay you off just like all the other administrations have done.

Why do I say this?  Well that is what Bosworth says the US should do in his Newsweek article:

We think the best approach would be to forge ahead with the denuclearization process while also working with the other members of the Six-Party Process to begin to build a web of connections tying North Korea to the regional and global economies. This would likely involve some economic subsidies for North Korea, including more humanitarian aid, energy assistance and investment in the rebuilding of the economy. Such a deal, which would permit North Korea to continue its internal repressive policies, would be no easy sell politically in the United States. But it would, at a minimum, reduce the threat of further proliferation and improve the chances of getting North Korea to give up its plutonium and weapons. There are no guarantees, but this approach would be far better than waiting around and hoping North Korea will collapse. That is no real policy at all, and rest assured North Korea knows how to get our attention.

So folks get ready for Sunshine all over again.

While the US economy is struggling and jobs are being lost, we will be paying off North Korea once again.  So how well does giving goodies for little to nothing in return from North Korea work?  Just look at recent history, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak ended his predecessors Sunshine Policy because it didn’t work and North Korea was using the money to advance both their nuclear and missile capabilities while expanding their military.

The Obama administration is now set to replace the failed Bush North Korea policy with the failed Clinton North Korea policy.  It is 1994 and Jimmy Carter is not even needed this time because we have Barrack Obama.

Once again better options are being ignored.