Which Way on North Korea?

Earlier this year the Six Party Talks on North Korea resulted in an agreement that was supposed to have led North Korea to shut down its nuclear enrichment program and allow for international inspections.

So far, that hasn't happened. Does this mean the negotiation process has failed or could it be setting the stage for an even greater diplomatic breakthrough? Well, expert opinion differs.

Former Bush Administration official, Ambassador John Bolton had a piece in the Wall Street Journal last week declaring failure and basically saying the pipedream of negotiations won't work with Syria or Iran any better than it has with North Korea.

But the current Bush Administration ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, is holding out hope. In fact, he recently said something to officials in the region which was interpreted as meaning that the U.S. could establish normal diplomatic relations with North Korea before the end of the year.

The State Department quickly backed down on those comments, but the flap highlighted just how hard it is to predict where the Korea talks are headed.