Free Republic

IN A rare meeting between old enemies, top diplomats from the United States and North Korea held talks in Beijing yesterday, paving the way for long-delayed six-party negotiations on ending the North’s nuclear programme.Officials from the communist state agreed to meet after President Bush began to refer to their leader as “Mr Kim Jong Il”, instead of using terms such as “pygmy”.US officials said the aim was to get to know each other better, although they may also have been spurred on by the worsening situation on the Korean peninsula. The International Atomic Energy Agency has called it the world’s...