LOS ANGELES -- Peace on the strategically vital Korean Peninsula still has a long way to go, but we may be getting there, step by halting step.
Step one is positive input from the Bush administration. Praise to the White House for ditching its nasty "thunder and lightning policy" toward North Korea, as it announced acceptance of Pyongyang's offer to resume official talks.
In fairness to Washington, you don't have to be a parochial American who rarely travels beyond his ranch to despise a regime whose communist-cockeyed policies have led to malnutrition and starvation and whose idea of diplomacy is to hide behind a rock, show the muzzle of a gun and shout stupid slogans.