Back to the Table? Pyongyang tries to tempt the U.S. (and, presumably, the five "neighbor" negotiators) back to the bargaining table with a "bold" offer:

"The DPRK is set to refrain from test and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose as first-phase measures of the package solution," said KCNA, using the abbreviation of North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Two things: First, doesn't this sound suspiciously like the last bill of goods Clinton's cookie pushers signed on to? That is to say, does Dear Leader fancy himself Lucy van Pelt to our Charlie Brown? Any answer other than "Get bent!" should be off the table.

Second (and not an original point), it's striking how some of the most unfree countries in the world are the loudest about proclaiming their freedom. Another of those "tribute vice pays to virtue" points, naturally, that North Korea's official name notes that it is both democratic and a republic, and that it is, specifically, the "people's" republic. What was it that East Germany styled itself? The "People's Free and Democratic Republic of Happiness and Joy," or something? As a coworker of mine always says, we talk loudest about the virtues we practice least.