"It was kind of like a miracle," breathed Jimmy Carter, about his conversion of North Korea's dictator from lion to lamb.
No wonder Kim Il Sung denied entry to special envoys chosen by President Clinton last month. Sens. Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar would have presented a strong American position on his nuclear bomb production.North Korea preferred the courtship of Jimmy Carter, who as president wanted to pull U.S. troops from the South. Carter went not as a representative of the United States but as one who opposed pressure on the North that would have made it costly for Kim to break the nuclear treaty.
Amazingly, as Carter proudly brought a CNN crew into his meeting with the North Korean strongman, the world could see and hear the American blatantly misrepresent the U.S. position: Clinton would not continue to press for sanctions, Carter declared, in direct contravention of instructions.
Even more amazing was the reaction of what is laughingly called the Clinton national security team to this usurpation of presidential authority. At the urging of Vice President Gore, Clinton grasped for some reason to believe that Carter's appeasement had worked and that North Korea was using the Carter brokerage as a face-saving device to make a concession on its plutonium production.
Last week, Clinton chose to view Kim's promise of a temporary suspension of his plutonium-making - a pause required anyway to let rods cool - as the long-sought verifiable "freeze."
In response to this televised manipulation, Clinton then embraced his loose cannon as his savior. We caved in to Kim's demands to resume high-level talks that had been denied North Korea after its repeated double-crossing of negotiators. Crisis declared over.
Here, on the vital interest of the United States in stopping rogue states from becoming nuclear powers, we have an amalgam of the worst of two presidents.
Jimmy Carter, truster of Leonid Brezhnev until Afghanistan, truster and promoter of the BCCI banker until thousands of depositors were bilked of their savings, makes his pilgrimage to the last Stalinist - and again bets on the contagion of his own indisputable goodness.
Bill Clinton, passive in Bosnia, paper tiger in China, other-directed about Haiti - is again hoping for a break to distract the world's attention and to kick the can ahead for decision by his nuclear-threatened successor.
Result: the creation of President Jimmy Clinton, with the return of the malaise of leaderlessness.
North Korea is in the business of secretly building nuclear bombs. It deceived the world by producing plutonium in the past; the CIA and the U.N. inspectors believe North Korea has at least one device ready. From Moscow we learn that the KGB was convinced of Kim's impending capability four years ago.
By pretending to be insulted by the world's nosiness, Kim has already prevented the world from checking on his past production of plutonium.
We are today giving him the time to make a fresh five-bomb supply. If we do not accede to his demands this fall, Kim will add to the stockpile beyond our reach.
That's the position Jimmy Clinton has placed us in. With no basis for trust, we're trusting North Korea with precious time. It's kind of like a miracle.