Return to the Scene of the Crime

Fool me once, the saying goes, shame on you. Fool me twice, three times, four times — then you must be Jimmy Carter. America’s self-appointed global scold is at it again, explaining in The Washington Post how simple it would be to defuse the North Korea nuke crisis, if only someone who really understands Pyongyang and its “completely rational” leaders was given the task.

(Hint: His initials are JC and he’s from Georgia.)

Carter contends that Kim Jong-un, like his father and grandfather before him, just wants peace through direct talks with Washington, a permanent treaty and an end to sanctions — which the former president implies are responsible for millions suffering from famine.

Actually it’s North Korea — a concentration camp of a nation run by a ruthless dynasty — that for decades has inflicted unspeakable suffering on its own people.

But for Carter to suggest he knows best how to end Pyongyang’s saber-rattling is ludicrous — akin to Neville Chamberlain advising Churchill how to deal with Hitler.

Because few people have done as much as Carter to abet North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. It was Carter who, in 1994, appointed himself peacemaker and scurried off to Pyongyang, undercutting then-President Bill Clinton’s push for tougher sanctions against North Korea.

Carter negotiated a sweetheart deal that gave Pyongyang two nuclear reactors and $5 billion in aid in return for its promise to quit seeking nukes.

Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. But in 2002, the North Koreans ’fessed up and admitted they’d violated the pact from Day One. Four years later, they had their first nuclear weapon.

Yes, North Korea remains one of the world’s thorniest and potentially most dangerous crises. But the path to resolving it doesn’t lie through Jimmy Carter.