In N. Korea, a Case of Madeleine in Wonderland?

Remember National Missile Defense? The Clinton administration's scheme to build a $60 billion interceptor system to take out any incoming missiles fired by "rogue states" was motivated primarily by the "threat" from North Korea. Well, the danger appears to have passed, and the erstwhile rogue state governed by a man once decried as a homicidal fruitcake is now being groomed for a visit by President Clinton.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Tuesday that the North Koreans have agreed in principle to give up their missile program altogether if the U.S. will undertake to launch satellites for them. It's not a new offer, of course, having been first relayed to President Clinton by Russia's President Vladimir Putin after his visit to Pyongyang in July. But while Washington initially adopted a wait-and-see attitude, the U.S. now appears to be taking the offer seriously.

Secretary Albright has spent the past two days in Pyongyang for talks with North Korea's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il, to smooth the way for a possible visit by President Clinton before the end of his term. South Korea's huge strides toward reconciliation with the North have opened the way for the U.S. to consider breaking the ice on the most dangerous battlefront to have survived the Cold War. And Pyongyang's Stalinist regime, which presides over a nation literally starving because of drought and famine, has plenty to gain from making nice with Washington.

The North Koreans certainly pulled out the stops for Albright on Monday, reprising their mass celebration of Korean communism by a stadiumful of regimented citizens that had marked the ruling party's 55th anniversary earlier this month. It's worth quoting at length on this event from North Korea's official news agency, KCNA: "The letters 'greatest glory to the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il' were seen on the background and waves of rhythmic dances and flowers rolled on the floor of the stadium. The mass gymnastic display and art performance successfully depicted on a grand epic canvas the revolutionary history of the ever-victorious Worker's Party of Korea... [and] was acclaimed by the spectators for their high ideological and artistic value and peculiar style. At the end of the mass gymnastic display and art performance thunderous cheers of 'hurrah' burst forth and firecrackers fizzled again."

But the high point for Albright came when an image of the very Taepodong missile that had set Washington racing to build a missile shield was projected into the stadium. That was the cue for Kim Jong Il to work his charm on the secretary of state. "He immediately turned to me," she remembered Tuesday, "and quipped that this was the first satellite launch and would be the last." Seems the ever-victorious Worker's Party of Korea just loves a happy ending.