Redstate

Posted at 12:45pm on Jan. 24, 2008 An Honest Man at State

The Truth Gets in the Way of a Legacy Project

By Mark I

Jay Lefkowitz is President Bush’s Special Envoy to North Korea on human rights issues. As such, he has had a chance to study the way the North Korean regime operates, often from the inside, and has formulated some conclusions about the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. He is not optimistic.

In a speech at the American Enterprise Institute last week, Mr. Lefkowitz called for a new strategy in dealing with North Korea’s intransigence on both the human rights and nuclear front. But before that can happen, there must be an understanding that the current negotiating framework is failing. Mr. Lefkowitz delivered a sober, rational, and convincing speech that examined the history of negotiations with Pyongyang and looked at the underlying reasons why North Korea, and indeed all dictatorial regimes, behaves the way it does.

His reward for his insights and his calm and reasoned look at U.S. policy toward North Korea was a public rebuke from none other than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Secretary Rice, it seems, is increasingly becoming a creature of the establishment at the State Department, unwilling to sacrifice talking for the sake of concrete actions.

Read on…

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