The best bet for 'regime change' in North Korea.

The most dangerous failure of U.S. policy these days is in North Korea. President Bush has been startlingly passive as North Korea has begun churning out nuclear weapons like hotcakes. This is a regime that is not just menacing, but monstrous. In fairness, Bush is paralyzed only because the alternatives are dreadful. A military strike on North Korea's nuclear sites might have been an option in the early 1990s, but today we don't know where the plutonium and the uranium are kept, so a military strike might accomplish little--but trigger a new Korean war. The other option is the path that Richard Nixon pursued with Maoist China: resolute engagement, leading toward a new "grand bargain" in which Kim Jong Il would give up his nuclear program in exchange for political and economic ties with the international community. This has the advantage that the best bet to bring down Kim, the Dear Leader, isn't isolation, but contacts with the outside world.