Editorial: Diplomacy triumphs with North Korea

02/17/2007

Star Tribune
Published: February 17, 2007


Advice to take things a day at a time was never more appropriate than in diplomatic dealings with North Korea. Because Pyongyang has taken gamesmanship to such a bizarre level, you can never relax or let down your guard. That understood, however, the six-party agreement that could bring an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program remains an extraordinary achievement.

For its central role, the Bush administration deserves far better treatment than the scowls and denunciations it has gotten from its erstwhile supporters on the hard right. The administration is entitled to wear those scowls as badges of courage, for it took considerable courage to so completely change course on North Korea.

In a sense, this agreement brings things full circle, back to where they were when President Bush took office and the administration heaped its own scorn on the engagement philosophy that energized President Bill Clinton's approach to North Korea. Now, as then, North Korea will begin unwinding its nuclear weapons program in return for immediate fuel aid and promises of more to come -- including possible U.S. diplomatic recognition -- as the denuclearization work continues.

The hard right decries this pact as rewarding bad behavior, but that's silly. They controlled U.S. policy toward North Korea, in the person of Ambassador John Bolton, for five years, and all their bomb throwing produced was, indeed, bad behavior: North Korea ramped up its nuclear program and exploded a test device. Had the Bush administration picked up where the Clinton administration had left off, the pact agreed to this week could have been finished years ago. There's no reward here, just a recognition that the Bush administration's earlier policies were a dud and that the United States needed to get back to real, good-faith diplomacy.

Numerous commentators have asked whether the Bush administration will fully absorb the lesson here: that you need to talk with nations you regard with distaste. Demonizing them, making them pariahs, just pushes them to behave in ways you'd rather they didn't.

That's why the Bush administration needs to stop rattling sabers and aircraft carriers in Iran's face and begin talking with it about the deteriorating situation in Iraq and a host of important other contentious issues. The same goes for Syria.

If the agreement with North Korea is carried out successfully, it will become the second nation to negotiate a rollback in its nuclear program, following Libya. In both cases, the hard, quiet work of diplomacy triumphed. Sanctions helped, but bellicosity did not (indeed, the British demanded that Bolton be kept as far as possible away from the negotiations with Libya that it spearheaded).

True diplomacy by definition involves efforts to iron out difficulties peacefully between nations. That is the art of it. Projections of military power, economic pressure and other expressions of will all can play a role. But it comes down ultimately to speaking words to those you dislike or even despise in hopes an agreement can be reached that serves everyone's interest. The North Korea agreement is a fruit of diplomacy that deserves applause and celebration. We hope the Bush administration proves willing to try diplomacy more often.