Word: pyongyang
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...concern," has been downgraded again to "rogue state" by Bush. Three weeks ago, he embarrassed the President of South Korea, who has been trying to foster a warming trend, by saying the U.S. was in no rush to do more business with North Korea because he wasn't sure Pyongyang could be trusted. The Administration has taken a decidedly hands-off stance toward peacemaking, including in the Middle East. And though right-wingers are howling that he is easing up on Iraq sanctions, Bush was quick to drop bombs near Baghdad...
...prepare for a planned visit by the communist state's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il, to Seoul in the spring. Although no reason was provided for the cancellation - and it could simply be another quirky rescheduling, as when the North Koreans postponed last year's historic visit to Pyongyang by a couple of days - the tenor of statements emanating from the North Korean capital suggested otherwise. A Pyongyang radio broadcast urged South Koreans to reject "subservience and reliance on outside forces," a clear reference to last week's meeting in Washington where President Bush appeared to warn President Kim that...
...provide energy assistance in exchange for the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear program - an option President Kim warned would not be accepted by the North Koreans. But President Bush stated outright that he was skeptical of agreements reached with a regime as secretive as Pyongyang...
...winner, who has made reconciliation with the North the centerpiece of his presidency, high and dry. President Kim had warned that the a tougher line from the U.S. would drive North Korea's leader back into his reclusive and unpredictable shell, and that point appeared to be underscored by Pyongyang's decision to cancel Tuesday's talks. And a fit of diplomatic pique may be the best-case scenario - the South Koreans are concerned that if North Korea perceives a more hostile shift in Washington, it may renew its unpredictable military brinkmanship in order to put pressure...
...having watched Powell soften Washington's line on sanctions against Iraq during his Mideast tour, the hawks weren't about to allow him to start sending flowers to their favorite bogeyman in Pyongyang. North Korea's missile program is Exhibit A in the case for building a national missile defense, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, for one, has spent much of the past five years talking up the imminent missile threat from Pyongyang as a reason to hurry the deployment of a missile shield. If North Korea's missiles could be negotiated away for a couple of hundred million dollars...