LA Times: "Hillary Clinton's diplomacy raises some eyebrows"

Reporting from Washington -- For years as North Korea defied the West with its nuclear program, U.S. officials considered international negotiations their best chance, if not their only hope, for dealing with the renegade regime... it came as a jolt when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton seemed to say recently that the Obama administration was throwing in the towel on the talks. The idea that North Korea would take part, she said, was "implausible, if not impossible."... In other remarks over the last month, she has compared China unfavorably to Iran, and said the U.S.-backed government in Pakistan was "abdicating" to the Taliban... Aides say that at times they have urged Clinton to reconsider her approach, but have been rebuffed. Her manner is said to sometimes arouse concern in the State Department's regional bureaus, which generally are the first to hear foreign governments' complaints... coming from the nation's chief diplomat, they have raised eyebrows... This month, she said she found China's involvement in Latin America, like Iran's, to be "quite disturbing," even though many experts view China's activities there as benign.

Clinton's view on North Korea's "implausible" chances of involvement in negotiations followed her public speculation, rare for any top government official, about the stability of the country's leadership amid rumors that its ruler, Kim Jong Il, had suffered health setbacks.... her... words on Pakistan may have made it harder for the government, whose citizens are deeply suspicious of U.S. intentions, to go after militants, said Brian Katulis, a foreign policy specialist at the liberal Center for American Progress. By doing so, Pakistan would appear to be knuckling under to U.S. pressure, he said.

"Perhaps the statements took a serious situation a couple of steps too far, and impeded the natural process of the government responding to a threat they saw themselves," he said, saying those comments "really went over the top."