Wall Street Journal: North Korea and Diplomacy

Right after North Korea’s first nuclear test, in October 2006, Senator Bob Menendez explained that the event „illustrates just how much the Bush Administration’s incompetence has endangered our nation.“ The New Jersey Democrat hasn’t said what he thinks North Korea’s second test says about the current Administration, so allow us to connect the diplomatic dots. At the time of the first test, the common liberal lament was that Kim Jong Il was belligerent only because President Bush had eschewed diplomacy in favor of tough rhetoric, like naming Pyongyang to the „axis of evil.“