Demagogue

I guess everyone has a price — even the North Koreans. This story was just posted by the N.Y. Times:

North Korea agreed today to close its main nuclear reactor in exchange for a package of food, fuel and other aid from the United States, China, South Korea and Russia. The breakthrough, announced by the Chinese government after intense negotiations, came four months after North Korea tested a nuclear bomb.

The partner nations agreed to provide roughly $400 million in various kinds of aid in return for the North starting a permanent disabling of its nuclear facilities and allowing inspectors into the country.

Perhaps equally important, the United States and Japan agreed to discuss normalizing relations with Pyongyang. The United States will begin the process of removing North Korea from its designation as a terror-sponsoring state and also on ending U.S. trade and financial sanctions.

We'll agree to this with a Stalinist government that hastened mass starvation among its own people, but we wouldn't dare enter into talks with Syria or Iran. Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy?