North Korean nukes

In case you missed it, yesterday witnessed much of Washington's foreign policy establishment go ga-ga over North Korea's announcement that it would scrap its nuclear weapons program. Typical was the following from Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace:

The crisis is not over and there are important verification and implementation details to negotiate. But we have turned an important nuclear corner on the Korean Peninsula. The new agreement by North Korea to give up all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and return to the Non-Proliferation Treaty is a major success for all the nations in the Six-Party talks. It is a victory for the United States who insisted on the complete end of these programs. It is a victory for North Korea, which has won a non-aggression pledge from the US and economic and energy aid. It is a victory for China, which patiently insisted on solving the stand-off through negotiations and played the key role in reaching the agreement. Finally, it is a victory for the “Libya model” over the “Iraq model”: end threats by changing a regime’s behavior, not by eliminating the regime.

Cirincione wasn't satisfied with merely noting the development, he also sought to score some political points, stating that it was a victory for engagement advocates (such as himself) over hawks in the Bush Administration.

Finally, this is a significant victory for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who recognized that the U.S. policy of the past four years was not working, slowly changed that policy to allow real negotiations with North Korea, and skillfully denied that any change had taken place. She thus preserved the confidence of the president while morphing his policy from confrontational posture to constructive engagement. She and Christopher Hill have done a masterful job.

Far more reasonable, however, was the response by President Bush:

"They have said, in principle, that they will abandon their nuclear weapons programs, and what we have said is 'great, that is a wonderful step forward, but now we have got to verify whether or not that happens,'" said Mr. Bush.

Rhetoric from North Korea is not enough, let's keep the champagne corked until they actually move forwards with dismantlement. Sounds smart, especially considering the latest announcement from Pyongyang just one day later.

North Korea said Tuesday it would not dismantle its nuclear weapons program until the United States first provides an atomic energy reactor, casting doubt on its commitment to a breakthrough agreement reached at international arms talks.

Let me emphasize: North Korea will never give up on its quest for nuclear weapons. It simply will not happen.