Yes, the shutdown of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear reactor was good news

National Review, August 13, 2007

Yes, the shutdown of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear reactor was good news. But Kim Jong Il's threat has been reduced just barely, and the flaws in the February 13 deal between North Korea and the other participants in the six-party talks remain all too apparent. Thanks to A. Q. Khan, the highly entrepreneurial Pakistani nuclear scientist, Kim still owns uranium-enrichment equipment.

And then there's the arsenal of atomic bombs he has already built. The deal reopened to Kim the conduits of foreign aid that keep his regime afloat while doing nothing to address these menaces. Defenders of the deal urge that Kim is still largely frozen out of the international financial system: The Treasury Department has tagged Banco Delta Asia, Kim's bank of choice in Macau, as an institution of "primary money-laundering concern." Fearing a similar fate, other banks subsequently refused to deal with Kim. But the Treasury Department could have issued its BDA ruling with or without the February 13 deal--and, for that matter, with or without the six-party talks. The Bush administration should be maximizing pressure on all fronts, not cranking it up here while pressing the escape valves there.