Personal criticism of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, from the highest levels in Washington may thwart hopes of Kim's isolationist regime returning to negotiations over its nuclear weapons program. The US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, sharply attacked Mr Kim, as United Nations officials warned of a famine about to hit North Korea and the US deploys more Stealth strike aircraft to the Korean peninsula. The combination suggests the Bush Administration, or its hawkish "neo-conservative" side, is losing patience with Chinese efforts to negotiate a solution to the nuclear issue, seeing Mr Kim's regime as vulnerable to a squeeze. A dichotomy in...