LINKS: We're now on the verge of seeing multilateralist policy with respect to North Korea pay some dividends--in convincing Russia and China to look at their long-term (not merely anti-US) interests, and in getting Japan to play a leading role in setting policy and sanctions.
So, naturally, we should give up while we still can. Indeed.
I don't think the US should really be in the business of annoying crazy (or maybe "not as loony as he seems, that he's well-informed and can behave quite rationally") dictators of repressive totalitarian regimes, but this looks like one of those situations where every move that the US could potentially take can be criticized; I'm not at all sure it follows that the US deserves to be criticized no matter what. I tend to think getting China thinking about its security interests is never a good thing (because if there's anything worse than a repressive totalitarian dictatorship, it's a repressive totalitarian dictatorship with delusions of capitalism), and to this end, Japan's proactiveness is uniformly a good thing. Moreover (and this is a key point for those who want to lambast the Bushies for unilateralism), the problem with switching to (or concurrently running) bilateral talks is that it essentially turns North Korea into the United States' problem; multilateralism in this context relieves pressure on all parties involved and presents a number of options for the non-North Koreans.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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