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editorial

For those of you keeping score at home, the United States' latest position on North Korea is that the country led by Kim Jong-un must abandon its burgeoning nuclear program before the U.S. will discuss the lifting of sanctions and other issues.

"A sustained cessation of North Korea's threatening behaviour must occur before talks can begin," Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State, said Friday at a United Nations Security Council meeting.

Okay. Except that, three days earlier, Mr. Tillerson said the exact opposite while speaking to a think tank in Washington, D.C. "We're ready to talk any time North Korea would like to talk, and we're ready to have the first meeting without precondition," he said

The White House immediately distanced itself from Mr. Tillerson's surprising remark. By Friday, America's top diplomat was squarely onside with President Donald Trump.

That's too bad. Yes, there is an argument to be made that talks with North Korea should only begin if Mr. Kim stops shooting missiles in the general direction of California and ends his efforts to tip them with nuclear warheads.

But that argument assumes that Mr. Kim is willing to cash in his only bargaining chip in exchange for an uncertain return.

Mr. Kim knows as well as anyone that Mr. Trump is an unreliable negotiator whose actions are tainted by a desperate need to look like he has won every confrontation.

Mr. Kim is no less of an unpredictable personality, and is just as unwilling to look weak. Any argument in favour of the current U.S. position ignores this reality.

Mr. Tillerson himself said last week that it is "unrealistic" to expect Mr. Kim to end a nuclear program in which he is so invested. We agree. It would be better to just start talking, without precondition, at this point.

The goal is the same – to end North Korea's nuclear threat. This will either be achieved by negotiations rooted in reality and compromise, or by mass destruction and death wrought by two imperious leaders who refuse to blink. The former is better for everyone, to put it mildly.

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