N Korean nuke declaration underscores shift in Bush policy
North Korea's declaration of its nuclear program may be unprecedented but it stems from a shift in President George W. Bush's once tough stand on the hardline communist state.
In a desperate move to notch a rare foreign policy victory before Bush leaves office in January, Washington seems so anxious to reach an aid-for-disarmament deal with Pyongyang, experts said.
Key questions on North Korea's secret nuclear weapons network are being set aside in a quest to achieve a legacy for the Bush administration, they said.
"There does appear to be eagerness on the administration's part to get an agreement that is less than complete," said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA officer in charge of North Korean affairs.
The Bush administration first took a confrontational posture in dealing with North Korea as part of a doctrine of regime change and pre-emptive military action -- highlighted by the linking of Pyongyang to an "axis-of-evil" with Iran and Saddan Hussein's Iraq, and the subsequent 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The administration then made a 180-degree turn to traditional diplomacy, notably agreeing to engage directly with North Korea dictator Kim Jong-Il's regime while participating in six party nuclear talks involving the United States, China, Japan, the two Koreas and Russia.
Bush even sent Kim an unprecedented personal letter in December last year, raising the possibility of normalized relations if he fully disclosed his nuclear programs before the US leader leaves office in January.
The six-party deal in which North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons in return for diplomatic, security and aid guarantees also mirrored a denuclearisation accord the Clinton administration struck with Pyongyang and which the successor administration dumped.
But the new deal may never see North Korea fully abandon its nuclear weapons, experts said, citing lack of attention to Pyongyang's suspected uranium enrichment program and proliferation activities.
"No one knows how North Korea will behave and no one is sure if the six parties will remain in consensus," said Jon Wolfstal, a nuclear expert at the Washington-based Centre of Strategic and International Studies.
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