talking nukes with a wacko

critics blame the bush administration for the north korea nukes issue. Fred Kaplan over at slate seems to lay blame equally on bush and north korea's kim jong-il. fortunately, it appears talks may yet revive.

so what prompted this potential breakthrough?
international pressure? kim jong-il wants to address the terrible state of his country?
no! it was a passing reference that president bush made:

The spokesman welcomed Bush's polite reference to the North Korean leader as "Mr. Kim Jong Il" in remarks the president made Tuesday.
"If Bush's remarks put an end to the scramble between the hawkish group and the moderate group in the U.S., which has thrown the Korean policy into a state of confusion, it would help create an atmosphere of the six-party talks," the spokesman was quoted saying by Pyongyang's official news service....
He said that Bush's use of "Mr." in referring to Kim would be viewed as a "very warm gesture" in the nuances of North Korean-U.S. relations.

i guess kim jong il subscribes the idea that 'if you can't say anything nice, i'll go nuclear'