[Williams]

The nuclear threat is and has been the serious one from N Korea, we enetered this administration with teh discovery of a secret N Korean nuke program and maybe a nuke. There was not any immediate prospect of ending the N Korean regime, a result taht S Korea, for example, opposes (unfortunately). So ending a N Korean Nuke program would be a major accomplishment.

That is if it happens and depending on what we give in return. However, N Korea never got the reactors that Clinton agreed to. Now you are saying that N Korea only wanted rice and fuel?

I don't think Bush was distracted, but S Korea certainly was not a plus during this period.

[Delacon]

Bush was never distracted. Recall how the US suggestion that the US troops should withdraw to the southern tip of the penninsula amid anti-american protests a few years back. That clarified the SK’s govt position and got the protests to stop.