Mr. Richardson Goes to Pyongyang

Can a New Mexico Democrat make a deal with the North Koreans?
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005, at 2:36 PM PT

When North Koreans are ready to make a deal on a festering dispute, they often call on a middleman—which is why Bill Richardson's little-noted trip to Pyongyang this week may signal an impending breakthrough in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear-weapons program.

When last we left those talks, the six powers signed a "joint statement" in which North Korea pledged to dismantle its nukes while, in exchange, the other five—the United States, China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea—pledged to think about giving Pyongyang two light-water nuclear-power reactors.