TNR suggests that the North Koreans truly wanted the agreed framework to succeed. The North wanted to disarm, but changed their minds when they saw that America was dragging its feet on our end of the deal. That view ignores the North Koreans’ characteristic pattern, which has always deployed threats, blackmail, an apparent shift to good behavior, and finally, betrayal and defiance (leading to another round of threats and blackmail.) The problem now is that the latest challenge-sale of nuclear materials to terrorists–allows no time for the old unhappy game to play out. One more case of getting snookered by the North Koreans and it’s too late–al Qaeda gets its nukes, and an American city goes down.