The Clinton administration's patient, footslogging negotiations with the Stalinist regime paid off. Not only did it win a freeze on nuclear weapons development, it made some progress on persuading Pyongyang to slow down its sales of rockets abroad and, most importantly, it helped break down the wall that divided it from South Korea. Now it is possible once again to think of seeing President Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine policy taking another step forward, with Kim Il-sung making a state visit to the South, and further steps forward on developing more transparency in its missile and nuclear research programs.
The Europeans, undoubtedly, are going to keep pushing hard on these issues all week. At the moment, the new policies of the Bush administration are at best skeletal, at worst contradictory. Secretary of State Colin Powell appears to be conducting a sophisticated, nuanced foreign policy that allows bridges to be built with Europe. Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld appears intent on constructing a sledgehammer; as if the Berlin Wall had never come down and China had never parted company with Mao Zedong's (
Bush will find all along the road he travels this week a different Europe from the one his father dealt with, even a different one from the early Clinton years. Its opposition is not going to melt away; if anything it is going to become more severe and more independently minded as time goes on.
The question that Bush is coming face to face with this week is how much of an antagonist does he want to make of Europe?
Jonathan Power is a freelance columnist based in London.
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