Today my North Korea news aggregator picked up a piece by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on John McCain’s North Korea policy, per his comments in the Asia Wall Street Journal. The article had a spiffy title, “Today’s McCain Myth: John McCain would produce results with North Korea.”

John McCain writes that “American leadership is also needed on North Korea.” Yet he goes on to describe a method for action that would bring us back to Bush Administration policies that didn’t work with North Korea for six years and made America less safe.

First (and just one example), the “less safe” call discounts or is oblivious to North Korea’s highly enriched uranium program that put North Korea in breach of the 1994 Agreed Framework, or the fact that the Clinton administration swept that mess under the rug. For the record, any uranium program absolutely violated the 1994 agreement.

Second, ejecting the Bush administration’s current policy of appeasement and going back to something that actually hurt Kim Jong-il’s regime is ringing endorsement of John McCain’s North Korea policy. Reinforcing that sentiment are statements made by McCain in 2006 (when Bush wasn’t in Legacy Mode), a summary of his position from the Council on Foreign Relations, and information from his campaign website.

The problem with the DNC position is that you’d have to either delusional or ignorant of the history of relevant issues to believe that any real progress is being made right now. Under the 13 February 2007 agreement (DOC), North Korea was supposed to submit, “a list of all its nuclear programs as described in the Joint Statement,” over a year ago, and even the extended deadline is nearly six months over due. The Bush administration is now backsliding on those requirements. And the DNC somehow thinks that’s the path to take? Appeasement would make American “safe”?

I’m still of the opinion that North Korea won’t change until Kim Jong-il is no longer in power, however that occurs. Helping him fund the regime elite in the meantime, however, is in no one’s interest; and that is exactly what the DNC is calling for.

John McCain actually knows something about North Korea; the presumptive Democratic nominee, not so much. Or translators in Iraq and Afghanistan.