The world has puzzled over the significance of the almost complete news blackout that followed the visit of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly to North Korea earlier this month. Now we know the reason: North Korea admitted that it had a nuclear weapons development program, a violation of the agreement that the two countries reached in 1994. The troubling development casts new light on North Korea's behavior and calls into question the steps toward "normalcy" that Pyongyang has made in recent weeks.
Now, Japan, the United States and South Korea, along with other nations, must coordinate efforts to convince the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program -- and any other programs committed to the development of weapons of mass destruction -- and honor its international agreements. There can be no normalization of relations with a country that fails to honor its international commitments.
Mr. Kelly's visit to Pyongyang was the first high-level outreach by a U.S. official to the North since President George W. Bush took office. The U.S. administration has made no secret of its feelings about the North Korean government (Mr. Bush included it in his "axis of evil"), its suspicions of Pyongyang's intentions and its contempt for the Agreed Framework, the 1994 agreement between Washington and Pyongyang that was designed to cap the North's nuclear weapons program in exchange for fuel oil and two light-water nuclear reactors. This week's developments suggest U.S. skepticism was justified.