John Kerry blasted Bush in the debate for not holding bi-lateral talks with North Korea & instead opting for multi-national(6 nation) talks. Kerry said as President he would do it the right way with bilateral talks. Oops - seems his way is wrong way. From the BBC:
Analysts believe Pyongyang may be waiting to see who will win the November elections before it makes its next move. It has refused to take part in a fourth round of six-nation talks which was planned for this month. But US Secretary of State Colin Powell stressed on Thursday - after talks with his Chinese counterpart - that Washington was still committed to this mechanism. "I'm quite confident that the six-part framework is a framework in which this matter will be dealt with for the foreseeable future, because it serves the interests of all parties," Mr Powell said. He said that North Korea's neighbours in particular had "an even greater equity in seeing a denuclearised peninsula than does the United States".
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, standing at his side,
said the "entire international community" agreed that the six-nation approach was the best way to deal with the problem.
....from sea to shining sea