Bill Richardson On North Korea: Hey, They Called Me

When things get dicey with a trigger happy North Korean, who’d think to call in resident Mexican Bill Richardson? Not the White House. They call Slick Willie, but Kim Jong Il sent for Bill Richardson to meet with his delegates, N. Korean Minister Kim Myong Gil and advisor to the Gov., K. A, Tony Namung, in Santa Fe yesterday. That’s right, the governor who looks like Brown Buffalo has accomplished what Condaleeza Rice could only dream of–to get North Korea to agree to talks about disarming their nukes. But none of that kinky group stuff the U.S. is so hot for:

The North Koreans clearly feel they are owed something, that they released the two Americans that they want something in return. The issue then becomes is it within the Six Party talks or bilaterally, face-to-face with US officials and North Korean officials. The North Koreans want face-to-face. They think the Six-Party talks are not working and they don’t want to return to that. But at least the temperature is way down.

Richardson was also quick to inform the press he wasn’t meeting with the North Koreans for the Obama administration. “They called me,” he said of Kim Jong Il’s people. And how is Kim Jong Il’s health these days? “He looked pretty healthy to me,” Richardson said of the publicized photos from Bill Clinton’s mission to rescue imprisoned American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Too outsidery, Bill.