Soon after details of the latest fudge on North Korea began to be criticized, administration talking points quickly began to stress "verification." But on a trip to Pyongyang last week, billed as one to finalize Pyongyang's declaration and hammer out verification issues, the State Department delegation included zero officials from its section charged with verification. Verification can't just be a slogan -- it has to be a practice. A likely scenario is that the North Koreans enter into a protracted debate over which verification measures it will submit to, continue to stall -- collecting concessions -- then restart the clock with a new administration.

U.S. credibility is suffering. Immediately after North Korea's nuclear test in 2006, the president stated, "The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable of the consequences of such action." The Syrian revelations, and the administration's reaction to it, have shredded that policy. How likely is it that other proliferators will take such statements seriously?