February 11, 2005 - In her opening statement in the confirmation hearings for her appointment as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senators, “The time for diplomacy is now.” Nobody disagreed with her statement. The time for diplomacy is always now but sometimes “now” quickly becomes “too late” when “now” is late in coming. It also quickly becomes too late when one side of a controversy refuses to recognize what another English speaking practitioner of statecraft said. “Jaw, Jaw, Jaw is always better than War, War, War.”

Yesterday the North Korean government announced that it possessed nuclear weapons. That came as no surprise to the Bush Administration. In April 2003 the North Koreans quietly told US negotiators that it had the bomb and would either test one or sell a weapon or two if the US did not come to the table in bi-lateral talks. The Bush administration reaction was to stay the course it had set, refuse bi-lateral discussions and to keep the threat under wraps. That may have been the time for diplomacy but that time is gone.

In the closing days of the Clinton Administration final agreement on North Korean nuclear disarmament was close. In December 2000 President Clinton told the nation that there was not enough time left to his administration to reach final agreement and urged his successor to continue with the negotiation. Instead the new President called off the talks and subsequently reneged on the agreements that had been reached in 1994, stopping work on the two nuclear power plants the US and its allies had promised to build and cutting off subsidized oil supplies to North Korea. Those programs had been the quid pro quo for the suspension of the North Korean nuclear program. That may have been the time for diplomacy but that time is gone.

In what could hardly be called diplomatic language the President further slammed the door on Pyongyang when he arrayed the North Korean regime as part of his Axis of Evil along with Iran and Iraq. He has persisted in belittling Kim Il Song as a mad man and a tyrant. Just this week Secretary of State Rice referred to North Korea as “an outpost of tyranny.” If Ms. Rice truly believes the time for diplomacy is now her language does not reflect it.

North Korea accompanied the announcement of its nuclear arsenal with withdrawal from the six party talks that Washington initiated and then suspended and demanded that the US engage in direct bi-lateral talks. Today the US rejected any direct talks with North Korea, staying the course that it set in February 2001. North Korea has successfully tested multistage rockets capable of reaching portions of the United States. It has the most fearsome weapons known to mankind and the means to use them. You can’t resolve a crisis diplomatically if you are unwilling to talk. The time for diplomacy is now.