I know next to nothing about North Korea, but I know how to find out. People who do know the weird country have been worrying about it in print for six years now. (See The New York Review of Books.)Eric Alterman picked this bit up in The Book on Bush:
"The tone of Powell's tenure was set early in the administration, when he announced that he planned 'to pick up where the Clinton administration had left off' in trying to secure the peace between North and South Korea, while negotiating with the North to prevent its acquisition of nuclear weaponry. The president not only repudiated his secretary of state in public, announcing, 'We're not certain as to whether or not they're keeping all terms of all agreements,' he did so during a joint appearance with South Korean President (and Nobel laureate [for peace for his own efforts with the North]) Kim Dae-Jung, thereby humiliating his honored guest, as well.”
This was pre-9-11, when President Bush's foreign policy consisted in not doing whatever Clinton had done...
Remember Bush's diplomatic interview with Bob Woodward, when he said, "I loathe Kim Jong Il! -- I've got a visceral reaction to this guy because he is starving his people."Always a top diplomat. But I warn you, when Bush makes reference to this, as in "my gut tells me," we are in big trouble. By any measure, North Korea continued to be more dangerous than Iraq.
I don't see how this mess can be blamed on anyone but Bush, but I notice that a few Republicans have dragged out the shade of Bill Clinton because he tried to deal with North Korea. Why doesn't someone on Fox News ask him about it?...
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