More on North Korea

[Sayhey]

The United States has signalled to North Korea that it may be willing to offer the secretive Stalinist state security guarantees if it agrees to abandon its nuclear programme.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said North Korea was continuing to demand a credible assurance that the US was not planning to attack or invade, and that Washington was exploring ways to resolve that issue.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3085684.stm

Now, if the Defense Dept. and the Hill Republicans will stay out of the negotiations maybe something can get resolved.

[mactastic]

But isn't that... appeasment? Something the Bush administration had said was a fault of Clinton's?

[zimv20]

Originally posted by mactastic
But isn't that... appeasment? Something the Bush administration had said was a fault of Clinton's?

ssssshhhhhhhhhhh..... let mr. powell get something accomplished before anyone realizes!

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by zimv20
ssssshhhhhhhhhhh..... let mr. powell get something accomplished before anyone realizes! heh. seriously. i think that Powell is a much better diplomat than bush allows him to be. i wish he had more free rein on foreign policy.

[IJ Reilly]

Originally posted by shadowfax
heh. seriously. i think that Powell is a much better diplomat than bush allows him to be. i wish he had more free rein on foreign policy.

This is true -- Powell is the only member of the cabinet who seems to do diplomacy, but as the administration's leading exponent of the traditionalist approach to foreign policy, he's been kept on a very short leash (and also made to humiliate himself before the UN Security Council, but that's another matter). It looks like his star may be rising again, though.