Commentary: Let's make a deal
(01/21/03 5:00am)
Let's forget for a moment the rhetoric coming from North Korea. All that talk about belligerent American imperialism and thinly veiled threats to turn its southern neighbor into a radioactive wasteland are not very helpful for constructive diplomacy, but they are also irrelevant. In the case of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - which is, incidentally, neither democratic nor a republic - only deeds matter, not words. What the DPRK has been doing since last fall is illegal and inappropriate, but the United States can offer a straightforward solution to the ongoing nuclear standoff. All Washington needs to do now is, quite simply, offer Pyongyang a bribe.