So ronery

The U.S.-led financial choke-hold on North Korea may be working. It seems that Kim Jong-Il is now begging for a breath of air.

From the beginning, the Bush administration's strategy with respect to North Korea has been to narrow down the six-party talks into something more manageable - two-party talks. Not between the United States and North Korea, as Gen. Wesley Clark suggested on his recent trip to Alabama, but between the two principal powers in Northeast Asia - the United States and China.

It took a North Korean nuclear test to get the Chinese to pull their chairs fully up to the table, but ever since that "unacceptable" event occurred, China's leaders have suddenly become more eager to negotiate.

The Dear Leader's newfound humility is a positive indication that the administration's tough diplomatic stance will pay off in the end - serving to avert a catastrophic war on the Korean peninsula and possibly leading to the ultimate downfall of Kim Jong-Il's regime. President Reagan's old line about "peace through strength" is just as relevant now as it was during the Cold War.