I haven't seen the right wing spin on last nights events yet. I'm not sure its out. But the left wing has jumped on this, and their message, frankly, strikes a nerve. We've been avoiding talks with these people for years. If we're not willing to take the casualties associated with war there, and we're not (which is why we provided aid during their famine), then we need to engage in dialog.

Think of NK as the world's biggest hostage situation. We need to talk them down, and reunification of the country is a carrot that we can use in that discussion. We're not doing that, which means we're doing fuck all except being jerks. Had I bothered to really think about NK prior to this event, this conclusion would have been obvious. The problem is now we've made being jerks a matter of will, and so in the wake of this event a shift in our policy is capitualtion. We need a forgein policy with a more nuanced understanding of international relations than "you're either with us or against us."

I don't think it's that simple. Reunification has been the topic of discussion since 1998 when South Korea adopted the Sunshine policy, blatantly stating they wanted to reunite Korea. The carrot is constantly being dangled. They will not do anything to move toward the carrot. They don't even make token efforts to disarm. All the talks have aimed at some level of disarmament, with carrots dangled. The initial point of the six party talks was to get North Korea to even start disarming, and moving away from it's "songun" policy so that we could find ways to legitimately unfuck the North Korean economy. Kim refuses abandon the "songun" policy, which basically translates to "military-first", and means that not only does the military get first priority on all resources, aid or otherwise, but that the military is also the primary priority of all state based development efforts.

I don't think it's fair to say we have avoided talks. We have been trying to get North Korea to the table with the other nations in the region. Any improvement in the situation with North Korea will require the other nations in the area. North Korea has backed out of talks with Seoul too. They snub China to the degree China doesn't cut off aid. They use the US like a strawman, blaming everything that happens on us. They supply weapons to our enemies. Everything this regime does amounts to extortion and bullshit. The only thing they export is weapons and strategic instability.

I'm not completely against bi-lateral talks with North Korea, but I seriously doubt they will achieve anything. It will just give them a chance to storm out of the talks, like they do almost all talks. Have there actually been any talks that the North Koreans didn't storm out of, that actually produced a resolution they followed? It's become quite rewarding behavior for them.. They keep getting away with it.

Update:

Furthermore...

But the left wing has jumped on this, and their message, frankly, strikes a nerve.

This guy appears to have been appointed to positions for the Republicans more recent then the Democrats. If he is partisan, it didn't seen to matters to another Bush..

Donald Gregg was a CIA official since 1951 and a liaison to President Carter's National Security Council and, National Security Advisor to Vice President George H.W. Bush and U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 1989 to 1993. He's now chairman of the board of the Korea Society

Being an ambassador during the only period the Sunshine policy was showing any promise or gains, might yield some insight..

RE: The reason NK made a bomb...