The frustrating thing about these two headlines, which recently ran on international wire services on the same day, is that they are both accurate. The Chinese may have invented "sweet and sour" as a way of cooking, but North Korea has perfected it as a foreign policy approach. As a veteran of negotiations with Pyongyang once noted, "I look forward to their most vitriolic outbursts . . . they normally come just before actual progress is going to be made."