Once again, the United States has shown that engagement with North Korea works. After four rounds of talks in as many months, a deal has been struck in New York with the North Korean government on access to an underground site suspected of housing a secret nuclear-weapons project. Japan, South Korea and China have all voiced satisfaction over this development. The agreement still falls short of achieving a substantial easing of tension in the Korean Peninsula, let alone Northeast Asia as a whole, yet it is a welcome development.

The significance of the latest nuclear deal is that North Korea has again shown its willingness to negotiate sensitive political issues. Even though the accord was extracted with pledges of food aid, Washington has managed to convince Pyongyang that engagement is the way to go in bilateral ties. The U.S. has even managed to wrest a promise to resume missile talks that Pyongyang has hitherto steadfastly refused to make.

Japan, too, has been trying for years to work out some sort of political accommodation with Pyongyang, but little has come of this effort except a continuing barrage of anti-Japan rhetoric from North Korea's official media. If the Japanese are wondering why Washington is succeeding where Tokyo has failed, the simple answer is: All the tough talk to the contrary, the Americans have turned North Korea into a state that is very much dependent on U.S. largess.