For six years, President Bush rejected any serious diplomacy with North Korea. That obstinacy made the world a more dangerous place. While he was refusing to talk, Pyongyang made more fuel for more weapons and tested a nuclear device. Now that American diplomats finally have been freed to negotiate, there is a chance that North Korea can be persuaded to give up its weapons. That would make the world a safer place.
The process has been undeniably frustrating. But on June 26, after a six-month delay (and unusual forbearance from the White House) North Korea submitted for review and verification a 60-page declaration of its nuclear activities. On June 27, the North Koreans blew up a cooling tower at their Yongbyon nuclear reactor - their source for plutonium.
That is political theater - CNN and other networks were invited to watch - but it is also a welcome sign that the inward-looking North Koreans are looking for international approval.
President Bush, who labeled North Korea part of the “axis of evil” and jettisoned President Bill Clinton’s 1994 nuclear deal with Pyongyang, kept his part of the bargain. On June 26, he lifted some Korean War-era commercial sanctions, and he said that North Korea would be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 45 days if it cooperates on verification efforts.
Mr. Bush has made compromises to get to this point, including accepting a declaration that falls short of the full nuclear catalog that North Korea agreed to provide. Many questions still remain, including the extent of Pyongyang’s attempt to pursue a covert nuclear program based on highly enriched uranium and what nuclear help it gave Syria. Last September, Israel bombed a suspected nuclear reactor there.
Republican hard-liners are predictably apoplectic. We don’t trust Pyongyang either. North Korea’s leaders have oppressed and impoverished their people. And we still don’t know if they have made the strategic decision to abandon their nuclear weapons or are just playing the United States and its diplomatic partners for time.
The sanctions that were lifted have huge symbolic importance for North Korea, but they easily can be reimposed if needed. We also know what six years of refusing to talk has produced: stalemate and enough plutonium for at least a half-dozen more weapons. We wish Mr. Bush would apply this same lesson to Iran.