Tempmanoa, the basis for your comment is wrong.  Bush did not tear up a treaty with North Korea. The treaty from which United States withdrew in 2002 was the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union.  It was a two-party treaty that barred the US and the Soviet Union from deploying nationwide defenses against strategic ballistic missiles. It had nothing to do with North Korea or any other country.  There was another major international treaty called the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that was ratified by all but three countries.  North Korea ratified it in December 1985, but unilaterally withdrew from the treaty in April 2003, which has resulted in the problems we are having today.  I suppose you could say that North Korea tore up this treaty.