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The merits of diplomacy

President Bush finally has changed his strategy for dealing with North Korea's nuclear threat from stubborn ultimatums to pragmatic compromise. That is what produced this week's international agreement that calls for North Korea to close its main nuclear reactor in exchange for fuel oil and other aid. While North Korea's Kim Jong Il is unpredictable at best and this fragile deal could easily break apart, the modest achievement could lead to bigger breakthroughs and beats the alternative.

The president signaled the new approach in his State of the Union address last month, when he briefly mentioned he was pursuing diplomacy to eliminate nuclear weapons in the isolated country that he previously included in his "axis of evil." Conditions were ripe for a break in the stalemate. North Korea desperately needs aid and felt pressure from China, its principal partner for energy and commerce, after its ballyhooed nuclear test last fall. The Bush administration has been consumed by the unpopular war in Iraq and needed something to counter accusations that its foreign policy has made the world a more dangerous place.

For a small amount of fuel oil, North Korea will shut down and seal its main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and allow U.N. inspectors to verify it. Down the road, it would get a year's worth of fuel oil if it unveils all of the nuclear weapons and facilities it has been bragging about. For optimists, that could produce real disarmament and eventually lead to normalizing relations between North Korea and the United States.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. What is encouraging is that the United States is now actively engaged in a meaningful effort to ease the threat posed by an isolated country with unstable leadership and little to lose. The agreement includes South Korea, Russia and China, another important signal in an era where Washington is under criticism for acting unilaterally. And the deal was pushed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has won a small battle against the administration hawks.

Any tenuous agreement with such an unpredictable country can be picked apart. Democrats complain that it mirrors an earlier deal by President Clinton and that Bush should have started negotiating several years ago. Republican hard-liners such as former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton criticized the agreement as weakening the Bush administration's get-tough approach and suggested it won't accomplish anything.

But all of that tough talk and no action only produced heightened fears about North Korea's nuclear program and backed a desperate country further into a corner. Yes, North Korea has a pretty sorry record on trustworthiness and follow-through. But a change in Bush's tactics was overdue, and this agreement could produce tangible results for a relatively minor investment. If it turns out to be even a small step back from nuclear insanity, it will be worth the effort.

[Last modified February 14, 2007, 22:35:11]