Doug:
1. I do not hold any brief for North Korea. Had Franklin Roosevelt given a speech, say, in 1938, before the Second World War, referring to Nazi Germany as "evil," that would have been lousy diplomacy and poor statesmanship. Franklin Roosevelt did not do that. He was a statesman and he knew better. Crazy people conduct foreign policy by way of invective. It serves no purpose. I'm not saying North Korea is virtuous. I'm saying Bush is an irresponsible cowboy.
2. I am sure North Korea has broken agreements. I can likewise think of agreements the United States has broken. Countries do that. I cannot think of any nation that has a perfect record of keeping its agreements. It is said that every Treaty includes a clausula rebus sic stantibus. Look that up if you're curious, it could be educational. And Clinton North Korea was playing funny, so we did not fulfill our side of the deal, which involved helping them build a
nuclear reactor. So there was no particular harm in making the agreement.
4. The First Lord of the Treasury is usually called a Prime Minister, for short.
3. "Failed policy"? What failed policy? We have kept out of war, haven't we? You somehow have this vision of the USA as omnipotent, so if we don't have our way everywhere, it's a failure. That is so monumentally wrong, it is a sure road to disaster. No matter how big our Army gets, we will never be omnipotent, because there are other people in the world who don't agree with us, and if all else fails, they will do stuff like (say) steal an airplane and crash it into the Pentagon. So it is not a good idea to push people too far. And if we push North Korea too far, they don't have to resort to terrorism; they can easily obliterate the city of Seoul, just with conventional artillery. A city of many millions. Do you care?