01c3c7e15c868210VgnVCM200000e66411acRCRDapproved/thenational/Articles/Migration/2009-Q3Paying attention to North Koreaf0c3c7e15c868210VgnVCM200000e66411ac____Attention-grabbing North Korea is clearly not interested in ending the crisis that threatens North East Asian security.<p>Bill Clinton toyed with the idea of visiting North Korea in the autumn of 2000, but at that time he lived in the White House and he understandably decided not to waste presidential capital without the certainty of a major diplomatic victory to justify visiting the reclusive Kim Jong Il. Now that Mr Clinton is a private citizen (albeit married to America's top diplomat), the bar is significantly lower and Mr Clinton's hunger for publicity and diplomatic action much higher. He arrived in Pyongyang yesterday on a mission to bring back two US journalists jailed for having illegally crossed the border while reporting the plight of North Korean refugees fleeing to China. This, in North Korean parlance, amounts to "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry" and earns 12 years in prison. There is little doubt that Mr Clinton's trip was approved, if not commissioned, by the White House: the former president would not engage in the solo diplomacy favoured by his predecessor, Jimmy Carter.</p> <p>It is possible that a deal has already been reached. Placated by the visit of a high-profile supplicant, North Korea may well pardon its prisoners as a sign of magnanimity. If so, an end to their ordeal will be worth Mr Clinton's diplomatic jetsetting. But the reporters are bit players in a larger drama in which the Asian pariah state uses any means to capture international headlines: nuclear tests, missile launches, military exercises and other forms of intimidation and blackmail. Every diplomatic means to persuade them to cease this immature behaviour has failed. The country was offered every possible incentive, including multilateral and bilateral talks, energy and food assistance, security guarantees and financial aid. The US removed it from its list of state sponsors of terrorism when it destroyed its plutonium reprocessing plant, only to see North Korea resume its nuclear programme more intensively once it became clear that the Obama administration would concentrate on Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.</p> <p>Attention-grabbing North Korea is clearly not interested in ending the crisis that threatens North East Asian security. Its diplomacy is less erratic than purposely disruptive. Whatever success Mr Clinton may claim will pale in the face of the size of the task of persuading Pyongyang to treat its people humanely and stop destabilising its neighbourhood.</p> 84NNOPINION2009080500000020090805000000100ARhttp://adedit.ad.atl.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090805/OPINION/708049880670804988020090805100000000