A depressing story about the fecklessness of the State Department and North Korea's (shocking!) perfidy.

You double-posted this Rand Simberg.

I haven't all that much to add except that I back the use of force and that if anything "bi-lateral" goes on it better be part of manipulation and deception from our side. That goes for the "sunshine" as well...

We're long overdue to liberate the NK concentration camps, maybe we're trying to entice China to do it... I'll refrain from more complex theories as I don't have any trustworthy sources but I sure hope a lot of stuff is being done below the radar by Japan, South Korea, and the US.

Diplomats in general perceive themselves as chess masters and that can be useful as long as they aren't actually used as anything more than chess pieces.

"Diplomats in general perceive themselves as chess masters"

I agree. The trouble is, the game is 5 card stud, in a Western saloon, in the 1870's. And everyone else is ready with their pistols.

My speculation is that the State Department self-selects (nowadays, at very least) for people whose principle allegiance is to some abstracted, international political order, not to the United States.

If my speculation is correct, I don't doubt their sincerity, but I do doubt their judgement. The "international community" and "family of nations" are polite fictions. I fear our diplomatic corps doesn't recognize their fictive nature.