Disarming Diplomacy

By Fester:

North Korea's announcement that of its list of nuclear activites and the US response of a vote on removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and easing of some sanctions is unabashed good news.  From Bloomberg:

North Korea submitted its inventory of nuclear plants and materials, a move followed by a U.S. pledge to remove the regime from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and lift some trade sanctions....

``The United States has no allusions [sic? illusions?] about the regime in Pyongyang,'' President George W. Bush said in the White House Rose Garden. ``Yet we welcome today's development.'' ...

North Korea agreed in February 2007 to disable its nuclear programs in return for normalized diplomatic ties with the U.S. and Japan and economic aid equivalent to 1 million metric tons of heavy fuel oil....

It shut down its main Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the source of its weapons-grade plutonium, in July and began disabling it in November [emphasis mine]

I completely agree with President Bush.  This is a welcome development and a positive outcome from a scumbag regime.  And this result has been the work of patient diplomacy with a clearly stated initial objective of removing nuclear weapons capability and proliferation capacity from North Korea without threatening war or demanding complete obsecience before having the talks to decide on the shape of the conference table.  This is a success, and I won't begrudge the Bush administration and at least a couple of its factions from doing the happy dance, as it this is a good accomplishment.

Now lets see if they are able to generalize successes and failures to a broader spectrum of situations adn tone down the talk/threat of war with Iran either directly or through US support of Isreal.