HONOLULU -- Some unsolicited advice to professors, congressmen, former ambassadors and other ex-diplomats, and anyone seeking a Nobel Peace Prize nomination: if you really want to help resolve the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula, stay home!
Such delegations are always well-intentioned, but then again, they say "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." What they generally are not, is very helpful in actually resolving the crisis. True, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's mission to Pyongyang in 1994 did in fact help save the day, moving the Clinton administration and Kim Il Sung (father of North Korea's current leader Kim Jong Il) back from the brink of sanctions and possibly war. But this is not 1994 and recent delegation heads, competent as they might be, fall short of Carter's prestige, clout and capabilities.
This week's planned delegation, headed by Stanford professor emeritus John Lewis (a genuinely sincere scholar for whom I have the highest personal regard) and including former diplomat Jack Pritchard (who likewise means well but should know better) may -- or may not -- also visit the North Korean nuclear complex at Yongbyon, where reprocessing of spent fuel rods has reportedly taken place.