[originaltext] The choices that President Bill Clinton now faces in trying to

The choices that President Bill Clinton now faces in trying to head off North Korea’s nuclear-weapons capability are the most agonizing an American president has faced in recent memory -- even more than the 1991 Iraq crisis. The frustrations for this president are evident. He came into office pledging to concentrate on domestic policy, yet this very disparagement of national-security issues may be tempting trouble-makers and making foreign challenges more likely. He clearly prefers to work through organizations such as the UN and International Atomic Energy Agency, yet the impotence of those institutions in the face of North Korean defiance is the starting point of today’s problem. Both action and inaction are fraught with dangers. Clinton yearns to resolve the dispute by political means, but the persuasiveness of his diplomatic positions may depend on whether he is thought to have coercive means available. His determination to block a North Korean nuclear bomb has escalated rhetorically, even before it is clear he has a strategy that will accomplish this objective.