THE CRAZIES TAKE OVER ANOTHER WING OF THE ASYLUM

This is a bad thing... but typical of the Bush administration.

A top State Department expert on North Korea has resigned under pressure, just days before the start of six-nation talks in China aimed at compelling the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

The State Department confirmed the departure of Jack Pritchard, the special envoy for negotiations with North Korea, but denied that he had been forced out. Mr. Pritchard's departure signals disarray in the administration's posture toward that country, experts outside the State Department said. It comes at a critical moment as the United States attempts to rally North Korea's neighbors to persuade the country to drop its efforts to reprocess spent fuel rods for weapons.

Mr. Pritchard's resignation on Friday points to a division in the administration over how best to handle the isolated, unpredictable and highly militarized government of Kim Jong Il nearly eight months after the North expelled foreign inspectors, the experts said.

Mr. Pritchard, who has had long experience in talks with the North, including a stint on President Clinton's National Security Council, is identified with a more conciliatory stance toward Pyongyang. He long advocated a carrot-and-stick approach, with incentives to North Korea for good behavior.

But a more confrontational position, favored at the White House and expressed by John R. Bolton, the under secretary for arms control at the State Department, gained ground in recent weeks, and at least one Republican senator complained to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell about Mr. Pritchard's approach.

Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican who is chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, sent a letter to Mr. Powell last week complaining about "mixed messages" coming out of the administration regarding a fierce July 31 speech by Mr. Bolton.

In a speech entitled "A Dictatorship at the Crossroads," Mr. Bolton denounced the North Korean leader, saying, "To give in to his extortionist demands would only encourage him and, perhaps more ominously, other would-be tyrants around the world."

North Korea denounced the speech, called Mr. Bolton "scum" and said he would be barred from taking part in the talks. Meanwhile, some State Department officials complained that the speech had complicated their efforts to revive negotiations.

According to Senator Kyl's letter, Mr. Pritchard recently told a top North Korean envoy at the United Nations that Mr. Bolton's remarks were only "personal" views.

Mr. Pritchard did not respond to an interview request at his office today. But spokesmen for the White House and the State Department backed up Mr. Bolton, saying he spoke for the administration.

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