Holdin' out more hope...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States predicted on Tuesday it could break an impasse over North Korea's demand that it has the right to develop peaceful atomic energy in a sign of a softening U.S. stance ahead of the resumption of six-party talks....
...Next week, the United States hopes to agree on a set of principles under which North Korea would abandon all of its nuclear arms programs in exchange for energy and economic aid.
Democrats have criticized the Bush administration for allowing North Korea to build its suspected nuclear arsenal while Washington failed to negotiate seriously.

The Democrats were in power during Kim's reign for about the same amount of time as Bush. What did they do about Kim Jong Il? They gave him everything he wanted, and expected NOTHING in return. That's what.

The administration official said there was some doubt the North Koreans would even return to negotiations as scheduled next week.

Yea, NO SHIT...

North Korea restarted a nuclear reactor before it returned to multinational talks in July on its nuclear programs, a newspaper said Sunday, AP reported. A U.S. reconnaissance satellite detected steam coming from a boiler connected to a nuclear reactor building,