Clinton Nominates Wendy Sherman

If Wendy Sherman is confirmed, I predict that she’ll screw up this administration’s North Korea policy — royally — but probably not until President Obama’s second term:

Wendy Sherman, a former senior U.S. official on North Korea, was nominated to a lofty State Department post on Friday despite political controversy over her earlier handling of North Korea affairs. The White House announced that President Barack Obama picked her to serve as under secretary for political affairs, the No. 3 post at the department.

Sherman was an adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. If confirmed, she will succeed William Burns, who has been nominated to be deputy secretary of state. Burns would replace James Steinberg, who resigned to teach at Syracuse University. [….]

If Sherman takes office, she is expected to be in charge of the department’s Asia policy, while Burns focuses on the Middle East and Europe.

This is really too bad, because until now, the policy had been pretty good, and had managed to put substantial economic pressure on the North Korean regime. Sherman’s past record suggests that she’s predisposed to sign Agreed Framework III, and you can safely assume the same of whomever South Korea’s Democratic Party nominates for the upcoming presidential election campaign there.