in Middle East peace talks , Clinton could not get assurances that a presidential visit to North Korea would seal the deal . He passed off the almost completed process to the incoming George W. Bush administration . On March 6 , 2001 , new Secretary of State Colin Powell said , `` We do plan to engage with North Korea to pick up where President Clinton and his administration left off . '' But Bush had different ideas . On March 7 , Bush kneecapped Powell . With South Korean President Kim Dae-jung sitting next to him in embarrassed silence , Bush said , `` We look forward to , at some point in the future , having a dialogue with the North Koreans , but any negotiation would require complete verification of the terms of a potential agreement . '' The conservative ideologues in the administration froze all discussions with North Korea for an 18-month review . Clinton 's hard-earned diplomatic wins were replaced by the Bush Doctrine , summed up by Vice President Dick Cheney : `` We do n't negotiate with evil ; we defeat it . '' The United States would instead overthrow difficult regimes
Editor 's note : Joseph Cirincione is president of Ploughshares Fund , a nonprofit organization that makes grants to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons , and the author of `` Bomb Scare : The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons . '' He formerly was a senior vice president at the Center for American Progress , a think tank that describes itself as `` progressive , '' and was on the staff of the House Armed Services Committee . Joseph Cirincione says Clinton 's trip was the culmination of diplomacy his adminstration began 15 years ago . -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- President Clinton did more than free two unjustly jailed journalists . He jump-started the successful diplomacy he had begun 15 years earlier . In October 2000 , then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang . During Bill Clinton 's presidency , the administration had locked down North Korea 's plutonium production program , which had created enough deadly material for two bombs during the Reagan years . They had stopped all missile tests . They were a few details away from concluding a deal to end these programs completely . But Clinton ran out of time . Enmeshed