North Korea Didn't 'Win'

So says State Department Spokesman Robert Wood.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/06/north-korea-didnt-win-despite-languid-response-far-rocket-launch/

Yeah right! I got news for you pal. The Norks just 'mooned' us gave us the finger and bitch slapped us. And they and just about everyone else from Pyongyang to Damascus is laughing their asses off at how impotent we've become.

As a reminder, take a look at this timeline of our dealings with North Korea. This is from June 2008.

http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/dprkchron


For years, the United States and the international community have tried to negotiate an end to North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and its export of ballistic missile technology. Those efforts were dealt a severe setback in early October, when Pyongyang acknowledged having a secret program to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons, shocking Washington and capitals around the world.

This is not the first crisis concerning North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons. In 1985, North Korea joined the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires non-nuclear states to forswear the development and acquisition of nuclear weapons. But in 1992, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors discovered that North Korea had diverted plutonium for a weapons program in violation of its treaty commitments. In 1993, amid demands for special inspections, North Korea announced its intention to withdraw from the NPT. The crisis was resolved in 1994 when the United States and North Korea signed the Agreed Framework, under which Pyongyang committed to freezing its illicit plutonium weapons program in exchange for two proliferation-resistant nuclear reactors and additional aid.

The Clinton administration subsequently pursued talks with Pyongyang to limit its ballistic missile programs but was unable to finalize an agreement. After suspending talks in March 2001 pending a policy review, the Bush administration expressed a willingness to meet with Pyongyang, but President George W. Bush also named North Korea part of an “axis of evil” and linked progress on nonproliferation with other issues that delayed talks. North Korea’s admission of having a uranium enrichment program now calls into question the future of U.S.-North Korean relations, in particular the implementation of the Agreed Framework.

The following chronology summarizes developments in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, and the efforts to end them, since 1985.