Doesn't mean he wasn't. Whether to publicize something like this is a completely different decision from whether to do it. You can be sure President Bush relied on the CIA, Cheney, Rice and others, in deciding how to handle sensitive intelligence issues and communications with leaders of totalitarian or unstable regimes.
The fundamental situation in NK has changed, because Dear Leader's health has clearly declined significantly since President Obama took office. There may well be something akin to major panic going on among the nations in a position to influence the situation at all. At this point, it's hard to envision a peaceful transition of power in NK, and with much of it's population perpeetually on the brink of the starvation, things could get out of control very quickly.
China is calling the shots on this, with South Korea getting a polite hearing from China but not much more. Our job is to cooperate with China's efforts, whatever they are, and do so in a way that gives the US as much influence as possible (not much, in this case), and that builds a foundation for dealing with future issues involving China. The NK population is going to swarm over the Chinese and SK borders, not ours. It is critically important that the US not be seen as having triggered that (though it's likely to happen, at least to some degree, no matter what anybody does).
I don’t agree that we should do whatever China tells us to do. That’s not the America I know and love.
The North Korean population won’t be swarming over any borders. They’ll be shot if they try. Those shots were not China’s call though. Obama’s pen pal gave that order.