Welcome to the new era of smart power, as opposed to the old era of stupid power. Near the end of the Bush Administration we saw cooling towers destroyed at nuclear facilities. But that was apparently disastrous foreign policy, so it simply had to be changed. Now we have a constant stream of nuclear tests, ballistic missile launches, talk of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula, insults regarding our Secretary of State, and Pyongyang declaring the Six Party Talks. Smart power!

PHUKET, Thailand, July 23 — The war of words between North Korea and the United States escalated Thursday, with North Korea’s Foreign Ministry lashing out at Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in unusually personal terms for “vulgar remarks” that it said demonstrated “she is by no means intelligent.”…

“The six-party talks are over,” spokesman Ri Hung Sik said, because of the “deep-rooted anti-North Korean policy” of the United States. North Korea rarely holds media events, so the decision to speak to reporters was significant.

Clinton and other U.S. officials said the North Korean delegation made similar belligerent statements at the conference. “In their presentation today, they evinced no willingness to pursue the path of denuclearization, and that was troubling,” Clinton said….

“We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to North Korean media. “Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.”

It would seem that the Obama Administration has won over the support of the world. Except when it actually needs them to contribute to the war on terrorism, apply tough sanctions against rogue regimes, actually come in line with international law, and generally do something other than talk. But they’ll talk about how much they love him, as well as make non-binding and simply rhetorical promises, until the Second Coming of Christ.

President Obama appointed a special envoy for negotiations with the hope of rebuilding the process. But after North Korea tested ballistic missiles and a nuclear weapon, the Obama team shifted course, viewing North Korea as a test case to demonstrate that substantial sanctions could be imposed on nuclear rogues while still holding out the promise of a better relationship. The administration even resurrected a demand for “irreversible” steps on denuclearization, language that had been banned by the State Department toward the end of Bush’s term.

The Bush Administration promised to drop sanctions in return for real action on the nuclear program. The Obama Administration says it will do no such thing. That appears to be working out well. So he’ll sit down for tea without preconditions with evil dictators, but he won’t provide a stick-and-carrot for them to actually do something? Apparently that qualifies as smart power.