THERE ARE still important questions to be answered about North Korea's nuclear program, but a milestone was passed yesterday. North Korea gave China what is supposed to be a complete account of that program, and President Bush said it is exempted from the Trading with the Enemy Act and will be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
North Korea's declaration and Bush's reciprocal action are very good news. They suggest that the joint statement of principles signed in 2005 by the United States, North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia is finally being fulfilled. The North has begun abandoning its nuclear program, disabling the reactor at Yongbyon, and the other five countries are starting to reward Pyongyang with fuel, food, and economic aid - steps that may lead to its inclusion in a peaceful security framework for northeast Asia.
North Korean officials have insisted all along that getting off the terrorism list and out from under the Trading with the Enemy Act are crucial steps toward a more ambitious goal: to end what they call relations of enmity with the United States. Strange as it may sound coming from a regime that Bush once included in his "axis of evil," that regime has been saying it wants normalized relations with America and, eventually, a friendship that protects North Korea from its more powerful Asian neighbors.
It is encouraging that the administration seems to have recognized, however belatedly, the value of multilateral diplomacy for resolving conflicts and securing the national interest. In a June 18 speech at the Heritage Foundation, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the administration's North Korea policy by saying: "Diplomacy means structuring a set of incentives and disincentives that make clear to states that changes in their behavior will be met with changes in ours. This is an approach we're taking with North Korea and with Iran, for that matter."
This is a far cry from Bush's original refusal even to talk to evildoers. It's too bad he took so long to learn how the game of geopolitics is played.
