What Bush Was Really Asking Kim Jong-il On Oct. 9 last year, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned from a Middle East tour and relaxed in her apartment after dinner with friends. Rice has been the best-traveled secretary of state since Henry Kissinger, but reportedly doesn't enjoy travel very much. Around 9 p.m., Rice got a phone call from Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns. He told her that the Chinese government had informed the U.S. Embassy in Beijing of North Korea's impending nuclear test. An hour later, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that North...