THE plan by Republican congressmen to challenge the flawed agreement on North Korea's nuclear programme is alarming, even though President Bill Clinton's on-the-job training in foreign policy has been a bumpy ride, particularly where Asia is concerned.
Mr Clinton's hard line on China went distinctly soft when business considerations took over from human-rights rhetoric. Talking tough over trade with Japan produced little by way of results. And the United States appeared to be drifting towards a war that would have obliterated much of the Korean peninsula, before Washington backtracked and settled on Pyongyang's terms.
Despite his shortcomings, Mr Clinton has at least attempted to conduct foreign policy in a manner that, while in accordance with US interests, is consistent with principles of fairness and decency that transcend narrower considerations. This is in contrast to his Republican predecessors who were willing to condone, or even foster, death squads, torture and corruption in Latin America in order to satisfy anti-communist extremists back home.
Those extremists are not yet back behind the steering wheel, but Mr Clinton is now in the uncomfortable and dangerous position of having Jesse Helms as his back-seat driver. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee looks likely to lead the assault on the agreement with North Korea. While the agreement is no advertisement for the powers of US diplomacy, Mr Helms' better-dead-than-red approach to politics spells considerable physical danger for South Korea.
US prestige is also at stake if Republican congressmen are willing to hold international agreements - including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - hostage to domestic political considerations for the next two years. Such agreements are built on the basis of quid pro quo, with a combination of promises and threats forcing the pace. This carrot-and-stick approach will not work if the Republicans want to take away the carrots.
Certainly, the agreement with North Korea involved an unusual combination of give and take for an accord between a pariah nation and the world's only superpower: Pyongyang threatened war and Washington promised US$4 billion of other people's money. However, Congress appears challenged when considering anything more sophisticated than pork-barrel politics, and certainly should not start unpicking international agreements.