For the past week or so we've been following the fallout from Jay Lefkowitz's criticism of the State Depatment's North Korea policy (see here, here, and here). The criticism itself went something like this:

Using unusually sharp words, he said North Korea "has not kept its word," was "not serious about disarming in a timely manner" and "its conduct does not appear to be that of a government that is willing to come in from the cold."

Lefkowitz also accused Pyongyang of being a "serial proliferator" and using its nuclear arms to "extort" foreign aid, saying there was no guarantee that US military and nuclear strength could prevent it from passing on nuclear arms or technology to Islamist extremists or their backers.

Since then the State Department has erased any record of Lefkowitz's speech from its own website, and now the Secretary herself has fired back:

Rice said that Jay Lefkowitz, President Bush's special envoy on North Korean human rights, "doesn't know what's going on in the six-party talks, and he certainly has no say on what American policy will be in the six-party talks."...

Rice, speaking with reporters on her way to Germany for talks on Iran's nuclear program, said that she knows where Bush stands on North Korean policy, "and I know where I stand, and those are the people who speak for American policy."

The Wall Street Journal expressed some hope in a recent editorial that Lefkowitz might have been talking for the president when he made those comments. Or at least that Lefkowitz might have the president's ear on this issue. I'm skeptical. But her reaction here is a bit bizarre. Nobody besides Rice, Chris Hill, and the president really have any idea what's going on at the six-party talks. And in fact, we don't need to know what's going on there to know that the North hasn't yet met its deadlines for "disablement," hasn't yet stopped starving its people, hasn't yet become a credible partner for negotiation. If, despite his title, Lefkowitz has no say in American policy on North Korea--perhaps he ought to.