Bush Moves Away From the Neocons

The New York Times reports today that the Bush Administration has decided to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. I have to say that this is one area where I think Bush has seen the light. Many neocons such as John Bolton are criticizing the move, but here are the facts. When Bush came into office the Clinton administration had established an Agreed Framework with North Korea. This agreement provided the North with reactors for domestic energy production and provided them with oil. In exchange, North Korea froze activities at their plutonium reactors and delayed the construction of new ones. It is believed that had it not been for the Agreed Framework, North Korea might have enough weapons grade plutonium for 100 nuclear weapons.

In 2002 the Bush administration believed that North Korea had a secret uranium enrichment program, and decided to pull out of the Agreed Framework altogether. For four years there was no real effort to engage North Korea, and in 2006 the North successfully detonated a nuclear device. Clearly, Bush's policy had failed.

If we fast forward to earlier this year, the Bush administration got North Korea to dismantle its plutonium enrichment facility in Yongbyon, and allow weapons inspectors to monitor the process. In exchange the U.S. would remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. This would allow the North to normalize diplomatic relations with the world, and be eligible for financial aid. This was undoubtedly a big success.

Recently, however, there was a huge setback. North Korea was not allowing inspectors to verify the state of their nuclear program, and threatened to restart their nuclear program. They say it was because the U.S. had not removed them from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Now, it's not clear to me who was in the wrong here, and it seems like both of these things were supposed to happen simultaneously. Even with this breakdown, I still think the negotiations had made progress because North Korea's ability to produce weapons grade plutonium had suffered a huge setback.

Today the Bush administration seems to have put the negotiations back on track by agreeing to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. In exchange, North Korea has agreed to resume the dismantling of the facility at Yongbyon, and allow inspectors to return. There are still questions about how inspectors will verify the steps that North Korea is taking, but I still believe that progress is being made.