North Korea Ignored

"Yesterday, North Korea [NK] declared all its political and military agreements with the South 'dead'--the latest in a string of confrontational moves taken by Pyongyang against Seoul and the US. ... Unfortunately, early signs are that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is falling prey to such logic and downplaying the significance of Pyongyang's nuclear program. It may well be that the Obama administration wants to emphasize domestic economic issues and limit foreign affairs priorities to the Arab-Israeli conflict. But neglecting [NK] is a dangerous gamble with very high stakes. ... Of course, the easiset way to solve a difficult problem is to conclude there really isn't one. (This was John Kennedy's technique for eliminating the 'missile gap' with the Soviet Union which he had deployed so effectively against Richard Nixon.) For years, State's permanent bureaucracy has been trying to wish away [NK's] uranium-enrichment program. If President Barack Obama's State Department takes this strategy, Pyongyang will once again have occasion to contemplate the profound wisdom of the ancient [NK]an riddle: Why negotiate with the Americans when we do so well by letting them negotiate with themselves?", John Bolton at the WSJ, 31 January 2009.

Why indeed. State operates through the looking glass, "If it were so it would be, but as it isn't it ain't". SecState Clinton should apply this to NK. I remember the 1960 election and the "missile gap". There wasn't one. However, JFK let the USSR create one!