North Korea Talks Must Make `Measurable Progress,' Hill Says

EXCERPT

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Six-nation talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program must make ``measurable progress'' when they resume at the weekend in Beijing, said Christopher Hill, the U.S. assistant secretary of state.
``Our purpose is to achieve denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,'' Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, told a briefing in Washington yesterday. ``There were indications that the DPRK, the North Koreans, would be prepared to deal in specifics at the coming round.''

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Tomorrow, in advance of the six party talks, Governor Bill Richardson will meet with a North Korean delegation, at the request of the North Koreans, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Says Governor Richardson, "We have an opportunity to end this crisis and bring stability to the Korean peninsula. I will press the North Koreans to start dismantling their nuclear weapons.''

Amazing. An American politician willing to engage in one-on-one talks with an adversary? This is precisely the reason why I am hopeful of a Richardson run for the White House. We need, desperately, to abandon our nation's current foriegn policy, which is isolation, demagoguery, and destabilizing regions through childish rhetoric and ill-advised, if not outright criminal, military action.