LOS ANGELES — Like the baby that hurls its rattle out of the crib to grab attention, North Korea has never been known for a subtle diplomatic style. Right now, though, it appears to have abandoned, temporarily at least, the crude infantile approach for a more adult turn.
Yes, once again, we are being manipulated. But this particular manipulation might just lead to something more hopeful than the usual. The latest twist in the ditsy diplomatic schizophrenia known as the foreign policy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has come in the form of an official apology.
It's hard to believe but the North Korean government actually said it was sorry about something — and said it very much in public. The apology came in the wake of a presumably inadvertent flood-control error. Water from a North Korean dam was released last month that flowed downstream like a mini-tsunami. In a flash it wound up drowning a half-dozen South Koreans along the Imjin River.