Will be interesting to see the dems reaction to this deal. I doubt it'll be worth the paper it's written on in due time.
This time the Bush administration may have played it right by putting veteran diplomat Christopher Hill on it. He's hit major diplomatic home runs before and he winning over all parties in the current talks. They really had to go the diplomatic route, because we are not prepared for a conventional war with Korea right now. This worked out in our favor because North Korea's only trump card is their huge army that could overun Seoul and most of South Korea very quickly. Right now the only way we could stop it would be to use nuclear weapons, which are already in place. Kim knows he will lose a nuclear war with the US and we're not going to fight another 1950-type Korean War. So he has blinked. But it is a long way from disarming North Korea and they have broken previous agreements. They will have to be watched closely and cannot be trusted.
I read an interesting article about a year ago regarding a strategy for a possible war with North Korea. The basic premise of the article was that we would need battleships (which of course have all been decommissioned) if we were going to have any success, since the North Koreans are so well dug in and fortified. This was assuming we didn't go the route of using nuclear weapons but rather, a more conventional war. EDIT: Here is the article that appeared in the June 2005 issue of the Marine Corps Gazette:
Even when Diplomacy works it doesn't always work however. It will be short lived just like the Oslo Peace Accords because Kim Jung Ill is crazy and loves to see his name in the headlines. The trouble with Diplomacy is that it is mainly short term success. It only lasts until one of the parties are out of power at best. Any doubters? Remember I said this when this North Korea problem is resurrected from the ashes in a few months or a year.
