In an early reminder of the tactics that await Obama on Jan

presidents to try to tame the nuclear weapons ambitions of North Korea, there are few signs that the third time will be a charm Obama and his designated secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Clinton have indicated they will continue and probably enhance the George W. Such policy continuity was largely expected and welcomed by North Korea experts, many of whom fault Bush for dismissing agreements with Pyongyang reached by President Bill Clinton in the 1990s and allowing the crisis to fester. That culminated in in an underground nuclear test by the North in 2006. But those who welcome continuity in Washington warn that following the same policy toward Pyongyang may mean only further frustration.

In an early reminder of the tactics that await Obama, on Jan. 13 North Korea's Foreign Ministry demanded that Washington remove the nuclear umbrella that underpins the U.S.-South Korean security and said implementing the disarmament deal it had agreed to in 2005 would require an end to U.S hostility. MORE NON-COMPLIANCE AND BRINKMANSHIP Last-ditch efforts by the Bush administration to win North Korea's agreement on a system to verify its nuclear history and disarmament progress ended in stalemate at the end of 2008. In his final news conference Bush acknowledged that North Korea was "still dangerous," while aides like Vice President Dick Cheney claimed progress in forging the six-party talks, in which the United States is joined by China, Japan, Russia and South Korea in diplomacy aimed at disarming North Korea. Clinton told the Senate panel that approved her nomination as top diplomat this week that she would be reviewing the diplomatic record with North Korea. But she called the six-party process a "vehicle for us to exert pressure on North Korea in a way that is more likely to alter their behavior." Clinton's written testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said she would insist on eliminating all aspects of North Korea's nuclear program and that Washington would not normalize relations with Pyongyang until its nuclear activities were ended and fully accounted for.

Experts predict Obama will enhance the approach Bush took toward North Korea in the past two years, after earlier U.S. bids to isolate Pyongyang gave way to the six-party meetings and occasional bilateral talks with the North. "I really believe they will do something different within the structure that they have inherited," said Charles Pritchard, head of the Korea Economic Institute in Washington A former U.S. diplomat who has played no role on the Obama transition team, Pritchard predicted direct U.S. dialogue with North Korea would become more frequent, deeper and possibly broader to include issues other than nuclear proliferation But more flexible U.S. diplomacy alone will not work unless North Korea changes an approach that has stymied Obama's predecessors, warned Klingner.