Um, I hope you realize how close the US was to war with North Korea in 1994 before the Carter trip. Because they were going to process plutonium, Clinton was seriously on the verge of a pre-emptive strike against its nuclear facilities... the retaliatory artillery barrage on Seoul would have killed tens of thousands of people immediately.
I realize that. But Carter's agreement gave away the store, and simply delayed the problem. Also, the way in which Carter handled the whole thing -- announcing the agreement publicly before reporting it to Clinton, in order to force Clinton's hand -- was a disgrace. Only an egomaniac would behave in such a way.
Clinton accepted the agreement not because it was a good agreement, but because (1) Carter's unprofessional conduct put him in a position in which it would have been very difficult to reject it without major damage; and (2) he gambled that North Korea would collapse on its own before we had to deliver on our side of the agreement's obligations.
Unfortunately, we lost that bet, though I can see logically why Clinton would have taken that gamble. Where I have a problem with Clinton is that he knew as early as 1997 that the North Koreans were cheating on the agreement, and he swept it under the rug, and passed the problem on to his successor.
North Korea was willing to play ball until Bush's Axis Of Evil speech. I wouldn't say Clinton was blameless, but Bush really caused some problems with his hostile rhetoric.
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