Despite Progress in Negotiations, North Korea Ups the Ante

No country has been as consistently hostile, devious or unreliable as North Korea. The Bush Administration came into office rejecting a previous agreement to halt Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and said the regime of Kim Jong Il could never be trusted. The last year has seen head-spinning changes, with the Koreans first exploding a nuclear test bomb, and then negotiating an agreement to dismantle its program. A former negotiator on North Korea, Ambassador Jack Pritchard is now president of the Korea Economic Institute.