A Charade Masquerading as Diplomacy

The geopolitical charade known as the six-party talksthe international diplomatic game in which North Korea pretends to consider denuclearizing, while five other countries at the table pretend to believe Pyongyang is seriousseem to have entered a new and surreal phase. By many yardsticks (to pick just one: the amount of plutonium in Kim Jong Il's nuclear arsenal), the North Korean nuclear problem is decidedly more acute today than it was before the negotiating process began two years ago. Thus far, the fourth round of talks has been as fruitless as the previous three. After 13 days of meetings without substantive progress,...