North Korea Reneges on Nuke Deal

Well, you sorta knew this was coming. One day after agreeing to a preliminary nuclear disarmament agreement, North Korea is beginning to renege on it. Reuters reports:

North Korea jeopardized a six-country deal on giving up its nuclear arms just one day after it was struck by vowing on Tuesday to keep the weapons until Washington provides civilian atomic reactors.

The U.S. State Department said the North's views, set out in a long statement, did not match the agreement signed in Beijing.

China asked all sides to fulfil their promises. Seoul said it would take the lead role in bridging the gap between the U.S. and North Korean views. Japan saw a possible negotiating ploy.

"We must watch North Korea closely to see if there is really a fundamental difference on that point," Japanese Chief Cabinet spokesman Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters. "If we are completely at odds, that will mean going back to the beginning. But we do not believe that is the case."

Read it here.

So how is this different from past agreements with the North that have been suddenly rendered "inopearable?" One word -- "China." In the past agreements have been the result of bilateral talks and the only players with a stake in the outcome were the US and N. Korea. This time China took/was given credit as the architect of the deal and its prestige is now on the line. China is the only power with real influence over N. Korea and this is crunch time. Will Beijing bring pressure to bear to force N. Korea back into compliance or not? Note also that S. Korea is taking an active role to resolve the situation.

This is where the Bush administration deserves real credit. All along Democrats and the international community were pressuring the US to engage in bilateral talks with North Korea and he resisted, and so far that resistance has paid off. The involvement of other countries, especially China, in the process is the only way the situation can be resolved.

Not bad for a "simplistic" cowboy!