THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE reported today that " mercenaries" exfiltrated several high level North Korean nuclear scientists through embassies in China to safe houses in the Washington DC area. One defector includes " The Father of the North Korean Bomb ". The article emphasized that the agents were not U.S. government employees which indicates to me that high U.S. government officials in the national security or intelligence communities have leaked the information on the start of trilateral talks with Pyongyang.

The Bush administration is cleverly boxing the North Koreans in with multiple-levels of public and back channel diplomacy. The revelation that the highly secretive and brutal Stalinist regime could be successfully penetrated in such a manner is itself a political shock to the public prestige of Pyongyang.  ¶ 12:05 PM