More great moments in diplomacy

The Asia Times discloses that Bolton's trip to South Korea has been postponed at the last minute.

The prospect of John Bolton, fiery US ambassador to the United Nations, careering through Seoul, making speeches denouncing North Korea, attempting to talk South Korean leaders into hard-nosed enforcement of the UN sanctions against the North, was more than South Korean officials could bear.

A day or two after getting word that Bolton would be coming to Seoul, his visit was abruptly canceled, even as underlings at the US Embassy were trying to negotiate a schedule.

The reason ostensibly was that he would be tied up giving a
lecture or two in Japan, but behind the cancellation was one simple fact: President Roh Moo-hyun simply did not want to see the man, and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was off to Beijing trying to work out how to keep North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from ordering up yet another nuclear test.

I assume 'careering' in the first paragraph was meant to be 'careening'. Anyway, it's nice to have available news sources that point out embarrassing little details like that. Certainly Pravda and Izvestia couldn't be troubled.