...In the August round of six-party talks, North Korea's Kim Il Yong told other negotiators, "It is not our goal to have nuclear weapons," and spelled out how his country would first refreeze and dismantle its nuclear sites. Pyongyang no longer insists on a nonaggression pact as a first step. Instead, Kim said, it seeks an agreement in principle in which it would "clarify its will to dismantle its nuclear program if the United States makes clear its will to give up its hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea)."

Kim spelled out a sequence of simultaneous steps Pyongyang would take with Washington. It "will allow the refreeze of our nuclear facility and nuclear substance and monitoring and inspection of them from the time the United States has concluded a nonaggression treaty with the DPRK and compensated for the loss of electricity."

"Nonaggression treaty" is the North's infelicitous choice of words for a written pledge that the United States will not attack it, not interfere in its internal affairs, and not impede its economic development by continuing sanctions or discouraging aid and investment from South Korea and Japan. Next, it will settle the missile issue -- "put on ice its missile test-firing and stop its [missile] export" -- once the United States and Japan open diplomatic relations. Then, it "will dismantle [its] nuclear facility from the time the [light-water reactors promised under the Agreed Framework] are completed."

Does Pyongyang mean what it says? The surest way to find out is diplomatic give-and-take. That's why Tokyo and Seoul have urged Washington to make a counteroffer. That requires the Bush administration to do something it has not yet done -- decide what it wants most and what it would offer in return...