When I was a kid going to elementary school, all the other kids would ask if I was a Red or from the South...

North Korea: Bush Frustrated with Diplomacy

by mcjoan Fri Jul 07, 2006 at 03:38:51 PM PDT

That's a headline no one wants to see.

CHICAGO - President Bush expressed frustration Friday with the slow pace of diplomacy in dealing with North Korea and Iran and prodded world leaders to send an unmistakable message condemning Pyongyang's long-range missile test.

Need I point out the irony of this president's sudden desire for international solutions, for international cooperation? I didn't think so. Here's a reflection of his understanding of how diplomacy works.

"And it's, kind of -- you know, it's kind of painful in a way for some to watch, because it takes a while to get people on the same page," Bush said. "Not everybody thinks the exact same way we think. Different words mean different things to different people. And the diplomatic processes can be slow and cumbersome."

"Different words mean different things to different people?" I guess that's one way of looking at the world, but one would hope for a slightly more sophisticated vision of how actual diplomacy might work from the leader of the free world. But coming from the man who has been thumbing his nose at the world community for the past four years, we shouldn't expect more.

While Bush has been huffing and puffing about slow diplomacy, North Korea is issuing new threats.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea threatened on Friday to take "stronger physical actions" after Japan imposed sanctions in response to its missile tests this week, while the United States and Japan struggled to set out a unified diplomatic response to the launches.

Bush said Kim Jong Il, in ordering the missile tests, had defied China, Japan,

South Korea, Russia and the United States — the five countries that have been negotiating unsuccessfully with North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

"All of us said, `Don't fire that rocket.' He not only fired one, he fired seven. Now that he made that defiance, it's best for all of us to go to the

U.N. Security Council and say, loud and clear, 'Here's some red lines.' And that's what we're in the process of doing," Bush said.

He ruled out direct talks between just the U.S. and North Korea and said he hoped the six-party talks would resume.

"My judgment is you can't be successful if the United States is sitting at the table alone with North Korea. You run out of options very quickly if that's the case," he said. "In order to be successful diplomatically it's best to have other partners at the table"

At least the rest of the world is actively involved in this one. And it's a good thing. It's patently obvious that this administration, and particularly this president, is not up to a task of this magnitude.

>>It's one thing to hold hands with the King of Saudi Arabia in a garden, go to Graceland with the Japanese...It's quite another to talk someone down from detonating stuff...Is he equipped for that? Of course it's frustrating, but diplomacy only works when different words become similar terms...and he can't say stuff like, "Not everybody thinks like we do..." That we irritates me...Well, thankfully, he won't go one-on-one with Kim Jong Il...