Condelezza Rice misses a step

Condelezza Rice has bad timing. She was in Seoul for the inauguration of the new president Lee Hyung-bek. She's now in Beijing trying to soft soap China into applying more pressure on Kim Jong-il to give a full accounting of North Korea's nuclear programme which is now two months overdue. Like a timid child hovering in the background, with eyes wide open in amazement, she took refuge in Herr Bush's on again off again engagement with Pyongyang at the very moment the New York Philharmonic with Loren Maazel baton in hand were about to perform an 'American' programme including the clash of cymbals and loud roar of bombs bursting in air of musical instruements of the Star Spangled Banner in North Korea. She kept her distance and thus once again missed a breakthrough in diplomacy with a country the US is technically at war with.
So here we are, yet another example of the split personality of the Bush administration. A carrot and a stick which has on one hand brought more flexibility in approaching North Korea, and on the other, a harshness which drives it back into its tough carapace of a turtle's defence.
By distancing herself from the negotations the US government allowed for this music interlude of cultural diplomacy, Herr Bush & co. have shown for the nth time its true colours...like a hollow drum, it booms loudly, but for results, it sets itself up for failure. Even the 'New York Times' which never misses an opportunity to lambaste Kim Jong-il's Korea, if the reader has the courage to wade through its concrete prose and read to the very end of its reporting on Pyongyang, will have an epiphany as to why North Korea is dragging its feets on fully complying with an agreement it put its chop on. An agreement in this case is with two parties. North Korea met its obligations for the most part, but Herr Bush tried his old scam by trying to weasel out of his. He & his gang never caught the drift of dealing with a proud, fiercely nationalist North Korea. It believes in a quid pro quo, to wit, you do this, we do that. Washington promised aid which Washington stinted on; Herr Bush gave the impression that he would take North Korea off the terrorist list he keeps in his desk top draw; he didn't. So it is easier to understand Pyongyang's stalling, yet openness to the visit of the New York Philharmonic. Had secretary Rice got on an aeroplane to Pyongyang to be on hand for America's finest orchestra, she would've signalled that Herr Bush was open for a breakthrough. He isn't, nor is she. Given how insouciante is she when she was his national security advisor, she dismissed out of hand the danger of a terrorist attack in 2001 in the US, as well as her joining the bandwagon for a dumb war in Iraq which is bringing America to its knees financially.
Kim Jong-il is biding his time for a change of the guard at the White House for a better ear to speak to. He's not sitting on his hands either. Today's 'Financial Times' [26 February 2008] had a front page account of an invitation Eric Clapton has accepted to come and play in the 'hermit kingdom of the Kims' next year. Not only that the British will hear North Korea's national orchestra perform in London. One wonders why the dead weight of frozen American diplomacy hadn't thought of inviting that orchestra to come play in the US. It doesn't take much imagination to guess why. Herr Bush has what in Spanish is called 'huevos secos', meaning he has no balls.