The Acksiz of Eevul has struck again in incompetence. Following myriad rumors that NK's testing of a nuclear weapon was a dud comes further proof that it also may have served to rattle the cages of the US, SK, CN, JP, and RU.
What does North Korea have to gain from this? Apart from the extortion that I've previously mentioned, NK probably also seeks to create some measure of disunity among the other parties of the six-party talks. If they cannot be united, North Korea will come out a winner. We are already seeing some divergence in the wishes of China and Japan, with Tokyo wanting to take a harder line against Pyongyang than Beijing is willing to do. Throw the US, Russia, and South Korea into the equation and an already complicated situation further complicates itself.
It is against this reasoning why I wonder President Bush consistently rejects calls for one-on-one talks with Pyongyang. This will remain a stalemate until one side accedes (duh), but as it stands right now, any concessions will only occur as the result of some extraordinary situation.
Ah, but that is the game of diplomacy.
I'd like to add that listening to W's presser on Wednesday was one of the more amusing things I had done recently. He tried to impress on to an audience of reporters that the reason explaining why one is "with us or against us" was that he did not have a "sophisticated vocabulary."
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