before you get your hopes up

North Korea once again has its own preconditions for the six-way talks, and they're the same as ever: you pay, we play.

Your source for this pungent glop of oral caca: Yahoo! News.

Thou shalt chew upon my leprous, leathery, loathsome nads, Kim Jong Il! Now and forever!

Sorry, folks, but whatever progress you're hoping for ain't gonna happen this time around. It's just like the Pope said about North Korea: "It is as it was." I suspect NK's sending a delegation to Libya with only one question: "How the fuck did you guys back down from the US and still retain your balls?"

Anybody remember Gadaffi's "line of death"?

We need to be thinking about driving a very firm wedge between NK and Libya right now. We also need to be thinking about the accusations (quite possibly justified) of dictator-coddling that will accompany a warming (thawing?) relationship with Libya. Gadaffi may have to go. I don't know how this might happen, but it may have to happen if the US is going to strive for some internal consistency.

(Granted: Now that Libya's capitulated-- somewhat-- it might not be our most pressing concern. However, in light of the intelligence failures that allowed Libya to get as far along in its weapons program as it did, I think it deserves more than a little of our attention.)

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