Korean Peninsula Spin

 With North Korean continuing to decry injustice against its country and likely to conduct another test, according to Gary Samore, it is interesting to see how different State Department official's claims are described in the press.   According to Reuters, Stephen Bosworth seems pretty upbeat:

Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, also said that while a threatened second nuclear test by Pyongyang was a step in the wrong direction, there was no sense of crisis regarding the six-party nuclear disarmament talks . . ."I think everyone is relatively relaxed about where we are at this point of the process. There is not a sense of crisis," Bosworth said.  "Now we are going to proceed with patience and perseverance. We are committed to dialogue and we are obviously interested in returning to a negotiating table as soon as we can," he said.

while Clinton's remarks seemed much less so according to the GSN:

 "I have no plans of going to North Korea," she said, telling reporters that special envoy Stephen Bosworth would be handling U.S. diplomacy on Pyongyang. Bosworth is now traveling to all the other nations involved in talks with North Korea -- China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. He also has no plans to visit the North, according to State Department spokesman Robert Wood.  Clinton told lawmakers last week that it was "implausible if not impossible" that North Korea would return to the six-party talks. [emphasis added]

While their remarks are not directly contradictory there is certainly some tension between Clinton saying it is "implausible if not impossible" North Korea joins the six-party talks and Bosworth saying "there is no sense of crisis."   One possible explanation beyond simply differing press spin is optimism Bosworth holds for "direct dialogue between the U.S. and DPRK . . . within the framework of the six party process."  It would not be surprising to see North Korea jump all over the initially counterintuitive nature of this idea and reject it the same way it has the Six Party talks.  Another possible explanation is that Bosworth is trying to paint a rosy picture as he travels around East Asia to help drum up support for the Six Party talks.  The problem, however, is this strategy assumes you can get North Korea to the table which seems unlikely, even if other members of the Six Party talks show a little more support.