The next time some idiot trots out accusations of American "unilateralism", I want them to explain what's going on with our international diplomatic efforts towards North Korea.

From CNN:

The United States has been opposed to dealing with the North Korea issue on a one-to-one basis, saying a multi-lateral diplomatic approach is required.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is currently touring Japan, China and South Korea pushing the U.S. line on both North Korea and Iraq.

In particular, the U.S. is keen to encourage China to take a more active role in reining in Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

And the response of all these countries? Go fuck yourself, America. Deal with it on your own.

From the CNN coverage of Powell's visit to China:

After the meetings, China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan as saying that China hoped that the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) would begin direct talks on an equal footing.

Those sentiments have also been expressed by key U.S. regional allies South Korea and Australia.

I'm trying real hard to figure this one out. Could somebody help me? We're accused of being two-faced on North Korea because we're trying to engage them on a diplomatic track first, like the one we've thoroughly exhausted with Iraq. We're also repeatedly accused of "going it alone" and of being "unilateral".

So exactly what the hell is going on here? We're trying to reach out to regional countries in Asia, encouraging a multilateral diplomatic engagement with North Korea. And they're all dumping it back in our laps.

Well?