The Road to Damascus

U.S. Government/Reuters

What lies beneath: A U.S. satellite image of the al-Kibar facility

Throughout his presidency, George W. Bush has tried pretty much everything to get North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il to come out of his cage. He has tried to coerce him with economic sanctions and schoolboy bluster — a policy course that ended in 2006, when Kim tested a nuclear weapon, precisely the opposite of the result Bush intended. Since then, the Administration has tried bribery, offering blandishments like free food and fuel oil in hopes that North Korea would stand down its nuclear program. Kim has responded a bit — his nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, which produced the...

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