4 days after agreement, US cuts off North Korea's economy

I think Kim Jong Il is as crazy as any other dictator; I am sure readers of this article agree.

However, is his madness, at least in part, driven by our treatment of him rather than the other way around? The article at the Jump tells a story of our undercutting of an agreement made between N Korea and the US -- did this betrayal lead the crazy dictator down a path that we're currently on?

After all, when a country gets its lifeblood supply cut off (i.e., its economy or its flow of money), it doesn't have a lot of wiggle room. This measure has been met with a countermeasure: that is, Kim Jong Il has countered economic sanctions by the US with a threat to further develop nuclear weapons.

I think that we have certainly not helped reduce this issue, but, rather, we have hastened it. And the world suffers for it. All because we needed a third party for our "axis of evil" message.