Or something. Appearing on Fox News on 14 April, the SecState “said”:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153546,00.html:

bq. Well, one of the problems with the 1994 agreement with North Korea is that North Korea really was already very developed on the nuclear side and it was a freeze of North Korean programs where the benefits were up front and the North Korean actions were later.

_All_ the benefits, Dr. Rice? We gave the North Koreans some heating oil, poured the foundation for one light water reactor, and eased some sanctions after several years. The “1994 Agreed Framework”:http://www.armscontrol.org/documents/af.asp required us to do a bit more than that, eventually.

As for North Korea’s “actions,” Pyongyang froze its Yongbyon reactor and related facilities, per the agreement.

It is also true that Pyongyang was taking longer than it should have to alllow the IAEA to finish its initial inspection of the North Korean nuclear facilities. But the Agreed Framework did not technically require North Korea to do so until “a significant portion of the LWR project [was] completed, but before delivery of key nuclear components.” Those components have never been delivered.

But all is well now, according to Rice:

bq. We have a much better situation with North Korea now where we are, even though the North Koreans continue to develop, apparently, their capability and continue to try to remind the world of that, they are now in a six-party framework in which they have to face not just the United States but also the Russians, the Japanese, the Chinese and the South Koreans.

Do we need to get into how silly this is?

* Agreed Framework: Frozen plutonium program
* Now: Unfrozen plutonium program

Thank heavens the Bush administration is around to save us all from serious diplomacy, as well as rampant buggery.