[link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44176-2003Jan11.html|Washington Post]

Bush administration tries to pin North Korea crisis on the Clinton administration.

The Post casts this in a fairly sympathetic light, but if you read the facts it's pretty obvious the US broke it's end first.

We failed on our end, not building the reactor we promised them in any reasonable time frame. The accord was signed in 94 and was supposed to take 10 years to build the reactor, only now are basic foundations being laid.

Compounding this is that Bush's straight shooting, loud mouth, tell it like it is, act is exactly the wrong way to deal with officials from oriental cultures that treat public respect as key and are quite willing to embark on suicidal courses of action to maintain that public image.

The end result is a rather messy situation.

Jay