That Clinton treaty has stuck like a burr under the saddle of the right wing republicans ever since. They brought it up when N. Korea announced it was testing a nuclear weapon, and again when N. Korea sent a missle winging toward Japan across the Sea of Japan. They blamed Clinton for dealing with such a bad actor as Kim Jong-il, and being soft on defense. Apparently they think Bush can do the same thing, and it's okay.
Japan's Foreign Minister Taro has no faith in the new, Bush agreement; he told Condoleeza Rice "We do not know whether it will go ahead just because it has been signed."
Even if N. Korea does honor the treaty, the fact is that it does not address the much greater threat of the 10,000 conventional missiles pointed at Japan and South Korea, which are not covered in the pact. Steven Lord, a Wall street analyst, claims the treaty is a smoke screen slyly signed by N. Korea's Dear Leader to cover his huge missile build-up, and that is why an American missle defense contractor has been meeting secretly in Seoul with S. Korean and Japanese representatives.
I myself suspect the treaty is also a smoke screen engaged in by Bush to clear the decks for his expected confrontation with Iran. Opponents of Bush's Surge and of his saber-rattling against an incipiently nuclear Iran have reminded us that these endeavors distract Bush from dealing with threats from an already-nuclear N. Korea.
See, Bush really can do diplomacy, so critics should stop nagging him about that deficiency in his foreign policy. By apparently disposing of the threats from East Asia, now Bush can do as he darned well pleases in Southwest Asia. And he will.