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The pair were the leading hawks in the administration, pressuring the North and digging in their heels whenever the doves in the State Department called for dialogue with Pyongyang. The hawks apparently drove Colin Powell out of his job as secretary of state when he called for negotiations with the North.

Essentially, the hawks doubt North Korea's willingness to give up its nuclear weapons and do not trust Pyongyang. When President George W. Bush announced he will seek “common ground” with the Democrats in national security and replaced Rumsfeld, he hinted his North Korea policy will reflect the wishes of the Democrats for direct dialogue with the North. Cheney, who has been under fire from the public, may also see his leadership eroded over the next two years as the neocons in the administration take a back seat.

Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, left, looks at President George W. Bush in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Wednesday./AP

Experts predict that Bush will start reviewing his North Korea policy by appointing a special policy coordinator under the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2007. Some say the coordinator will be James Baker, who was secretary of state under Bush senior.

The Democrats Senator Joseph Biden and Congressman Tom Lantos, who have been urging direct bilateral talks with Pyongyang, are likely to be named chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee. Lantos vowed Thursday to work for a “radical change in course” in the nation's foreign policy.

But pundits predict that the basic framework of the Bush administration's North Korean policy will go unchanged as Bush's perception of North Korea as part of an “axis of evil” is rooted in his religious convictions, while the Democrats are not that different in how they regard North Korea. Any direct dialogue with Pyongyang, too, will come in the framework of six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program.

(englishnews@chosun.com )