WASHINGTON -- When South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun visits Washington this week, what can he and President George W. Bush possibly talk about?
The two presidents bring diametrically opposite instincts to the discussion. Bush feels that North Korea is engaged in a pitiful, dangerous and unacceptable game of blackmail, and doesn't want to play. He insists that any future negotiations be multilateral in scope, whether North Korea likes it or not, and that they proceed only after North Korea ceases its unacceptable nuclear activity.
Roh, by contrast, argues that as bad as North Korea is, the engagement strategy of the 1990s succeeded in capping its nuclear program and gradually drawing its leaders out of their shell. He wants to continue the diplomatic effort, even in the face of provocations from Pyongyang and even if it fails to comply initially with U.S. denuclearization demands.