Bush Adopted Approach He Previously Criticized

To Reach Pact With N. Korea, Bush Adopted An Approach He Had Criticized

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 4, 2007; A17
WashingtonPost

Three years ago this month, President Bush met Democratic challenger John F. Kerry in a debate and declared that Kerry's answer on negotiations with North Korea "made me want to scowl."

Bush said that Kerry was advocating a "naive and dangerous" policy of offering to conduct bilateral negotiations with Pyongyang in parallel with the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

"That's what President Clinton did," Bush asserted, saying Kerry's idea would undermine the six-party talks. Clinton "had bilateral talks with the North Korean, and guess what happened: He [Kim Jong Il] didn't honor the agreement."

If there was any doubt, yesterday's announcement in Beijing of a new agreement with North Korea demonstrates how much Bush has adopted the approach he once condemned.

The agreement was reached after bilateral negotiations between the United States and North Korea, held in parallel with the six-nation talks, just as Kerry had suggested.

Under the deal, North Korea is to begin disabling its core nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and provide a "complete and correct declaration" of all of its nuclear programs by Dec. 31. In exchange, the United States and North Korea will begin cultural exchanges and move toward a "full diplomatic relationship."

Citing the results of bilateral talks held between Pyongyang and Washington last month in Geneva, the six-party agreement strongly suggests that the United States will begin to remove the designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism and end sanctions under the 1917 Trading With the Enemy Act by the end of the year "in parallel with" North Korean actions.

The United States even agreed to begin paying the bill for disabling North Korea's nuclear facilities.

...Asian diplomats say Bush's shift is what helped break the deadlock.

A Chinese official said this week that China's role was minimal compared with the U.S. decision to finally engage in bilateral talks.

China, in fact, had long urged a "step by step" approach starting first with freezing North Korea's plutonium facilities before moving to more vexing questions such as Pyongyang's interest in uranium enrichment.

In 2004, during the presidential campaign, U.S. officials were instructed to firmly reject that approach.

This year, the Bush administration signed on to a step-by-step approach that began with a freeze.