Straight talk from Senator Richard Lugar

Sure he is a republican... nobody is perfect. Sen. Lugar warns of preemptive strike on North Korea... from CBS News:

A leading Republican senator suggested Sunday that the Bush administration should talk directly with North Korea as concerns grow over a possible test launch of a missile that could reach the United States.

On CBS' Face The Nation, Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. should not attack the missile while it is on the ground, before it is fired, as some have urged.

"It would be advisable to bring about a much greater degree of diplomacy, and this may involve direct talks between the United States and North Korea," he told Bob Schieffer.

North Korea long has wanted direct meetings with the U.S. Washington, however, has refused, insisting it will only meet the North Koreas in the context of six-nation international talks aimed at ridding the communist country of its nuclear weapons program.

Lugar, R-Ind., said he respected those talks, which are stalled now, but "nevertheless, with regard to a missile that might have a range of the United States, that becomes a very specific United States-North Korean issue."

"We're going to have to come to a point where we find at least an agenda to talk with North Korea about, and I think we are moving toward that," Lugar said on CBS.

It is a shame that the progress made with North Korea under the Clinton administration wasn't continued with the Bush administration.