In the New Jersey Devils ' last game , goalie Martin Brodeur had come in for his rookie backup , Mike Dunham , after one period with the Devils trailing Anaheim _ and New Jersey had come back to win .Tuesday night , the tables were turned .After a dreadful first period against Buffalo by the usually stalwart Brodeur , Dunham started the second period with New Jersey trailing by two goals .Unfortunately for the Devils , the result was not the same , as the Sabres held off a late flurry and skated to a 6-5 victory in front of 18,595 at Marine Midland Arena ." I felt we weren't playing that great , and I wanted to give Dunham some ice time too , " Devils Coach Jacques Lemaire said ." Goaltenders are going to have good games and not so good games .That 's the way it is . "The Sabres jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the opening period on just six shots against Brodeur .Brian Holzinger 's 12th goal of the season at 4 minutes 8 seconds of the period kicked off the scoring .At 11:09 , Bill Guerin 's 12th goal evened the score .Bobby Holik found Guerin open near center ice and Guerin fired a 20-footer past Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek .But Buffalo continued to press .Rob Ray scored at 14:27 to make it 2-1 , and Mike Peca then netted a short-handed goal at 18:25 to put the Sabres ahead by two .Peca converted a behind-the-net pass from Aleksei Zhitnik , snapping the puck past Brodeur .With Dave Andreychuk in the penalty box after bumping Hasek in the crease with 42 seconds remaining in the first period , the Sabres quickly tested Dunham to open the second .At 1:17 , Zhitnik connected for his third goal of the season to make it 4-1 .Then , at 14:50 , Derek Plante 's team-leading 18th goal appeared to put the game out of reach ." You 've got to do something to try to change it up , and hey , it almost worked , " Brodeur said ." Nobody was bad out there , Mike , me or Dominik . "Dunham faced 30 shots in his two periods and had 27 saves .Hasek stopped 19 shots .In the third period , the Devils  20-13-3  kept cutting into the lead .At 5:02 , Brian Rolston scored his 13th of the season to make it 5-2 .Midway through the period , the Sabres enjoyed a two-man advantage for more than a minute .With nine seconds left in the first Devils penalty , Buffalo defenseman Richard Smehlik scored for a 6-2 lead .But at 11:35 , Guerin added his second of the night and at 17:55 he got the hat trick .Andreychuk scored his 12th of the season at 18:21 , but the Devils could get no closer .SLAP SHOTS :Devils wing Steve Thomas left the game in the first period with a right knee injury .He will be evaluated Wednesday .
The annual New Year 's Eve countdown in Times Square is yet another example of the cultural divide between New York City and the rest of the country .While millions of Americans watch the ball drop on television each year and hundreds of thousands of them make the pilgrimage to Broadway to see it in person , all the revelry and whooping and hollering tends to send many native New Yorkers running for cover , and Tuesday night 's celebration was no exception ." Being from New York , it 's not that appealing , " said Greg Colbert , 24 , a stockbroker trainee who was fleeing Midtown before the hordes arrived , the streets were closed , the beer started to flow , the noisemakers began to bleat and the ball dropped ." I don't want to spend New Year 's Eve packed like a bunch of sardines in the freezing cold .I 'd rather be with my friends and family . "A childhood trip to Times Square to celebrate New Year 's cured Grace Deighan , one of his co-workers , of any desire to ever return ." You do it once and you 've done it , and you don't want to do it again , " explained Ms. Deighan , 24 , a sales assistant .But if many New Yorkers were nonplussed by the idea of braving the masses to watch the ball drop , visitors seemed to find New Year 's in Times Square irresistible , as close as one can ever come to the center of the action ." We're from Alaska ! Are We On TV Yet ? " asked the sign held up by Gabe Layman , 18 , who made sure that he timed his trip to look at eastern colleges so he could ring in the New Year in Times Square ." We 've climbed 8,000-foot mountain peaks , but this is crazier , " said Mr. Layman , who arrived at 2 p.m. to make sure he would have a good view at midnight ." I 've never seen this many people in the same place at the same time .There are as many people here as in our whole state . "The celebration 's popularity among out-of-towners is a testament to the power of television .Just as tourists are drawn to Rockefeller Center these days less for the ice skaters and the statue of Prometheus and more for the chance to watch the " Today " show filmed live , many revelers from elsewhere were lured to Times Square in the hopes of being part of a party that they have seen Dick Clark host on television for years ." When I was in Georgia I made it my business to watch the ball drop every year , " said Glenda Jones , 38 , who moved to New York from Columbus , Ga. , this year ." This is something I 've always dreamed of being a part of , and now I 'm in it .  STORY CAN END HERE .OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS Times Square was a mixture of the familiar and the new Tuesday night .Missionaries worked Broadway , just as they did in Damon Runyon 's day , handing out coffee and talking about saving souls .One man held a Bible aloft , muttering something about the end of the earth being nigh .A man and a woman held up signs that said , " New Revelations show we are close to the rapture . "But this year the crowds were illuminated by the neon lights of the neighborhood 's new arrivals : the Disney Store , the Virgin Megastore , the All Star Cafe and Ferrara 's .And if there seemed to be less flesh around , with the once-ubiquitous underwear advertisements disappearing nearly as fast as the pornographic stores and theaters , visitors could at least take in a giant billboard of a nude Howard Stern , obscured partly by the Chrysler Building on the advertisement , which is displayed on the Viacom Building to promote his upcoming film .And while young celebrants seemed happy to stand around and scream and yell , and hawkers made more noise than the noisemakers they were selling , the people who live and work in the vicinity grumbled that they could no longer get from point A to point B without circuitous detours .The Crossroads of the World was closed : 42nd Street was shut to traffic , the subway station was off limits , and 2,600 police officers shepherded the crowds into separate pens made up of police barricades ." This takes all the fun out of it , " complained a would-be reveler who was barred from entering Broadway at 44th Street and told to walk back to Eight Avenue , up to 48th Street then back over to Broadway ." This goes against the whole concept . "And a young man in a yellow plastic derby who was trying to get from the Avenue of the Americas to his family 's deli near Broadway was stopped at the corner ." Do you have a business ID ? " a police officer asked .But nothing could deter Ned Moraghan , a student at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken , N.J. , who arrived early with an aluminum foil " 9 " attached to his head .He was part of a quartet wearing the silvery numerals that make up " 1997 " on their heads ." It 's like being with half a million of your closest friends , " he said .His friend and classmate " 1 , " also known as Tom Smith , said that a trip to Times Square last New Year 's had converted him forever ." I 'm coming back every year , " said Mr. Smith .Still , the natives stayed away ." I 've seen it enough times on TV to know that I don't want to be there , " said Mecsi Aaron , 28 , a computer consultant , who fled into the 47th-50th Street subway station .And Jarek Sluzewski may have arrived from Poland only seven years ago , but he is already well-acquainted with the ways of his adopted hometown when it comes to New Year 's ." Only people from outside New York go to Times Square , " he said , as he prepared to head for a party in Queens where he would meet up with around 40 like-minded friends ." New Yorkers know there are better ways to spend New Year 's . "
A 38-year-old Bronx woman was arrested Tuesday and charged with reckless endangerment in the death of her 10-month-old daughter , who was found with a fractured skull and other injuries indicative of child abuse , the police said .Officials with the Bronx district attorney 's office said that their investigation into the mother , Tanisha Tucker , was continuing and that they could not rule out filing additional , more serious charges .The child , Delores Tucker , who was born last February , was discovered dead on Sunday .The city medical examiner 's office concluded that the cause was child abuse syndrome , with her skull and leg fractured , while her torso was ravaged by multiple blunt-force traumas .The child 's death came only weeks after city child welfare workers had been alerted to potential abuse and neglect in the Bronx household , and records indicate that a city caseworker was actively working on an investigation into the matter as recently as 10 days ago ." It is too early in our investigation to come to any conclusion as to whether proper case practices were followed , and so we make no judgments in this regard at this time , " said Nicholas Scoppetta , commissioner of the city 's Administration for Children 's Services .Detectives Tuesday night were still working to sort out events that led to the death of Delores Tucker , one of Tanisha Tucker 's three children , and said they were interviewing neighbors and Ms. Tucker 's other children in an effort to determine if more serious charges can be sustained .Police officials said they were called to Ms. Tucker 's apartment on Hoe Avenue in the Bronx on Sunday by Ms. Tucker 's boyfriend .The friend told detectives that Ms. Tucker had left the children with him on Saturday night so that she could pick up a present in Queens .According to detectives , the boyfriend said he had tried to care for the 10-month-old child after Ms. Tucker said the child had been roughed up by one of the older children .Early Sunday evening , the boyfriend called 911 after the injured child spit up blood and had stopped breathing .The child was declared dead on arrival at Lincoln Hospital ." Child homicides like this can be intricate cases , " said Deputy Chief Charles Kammerdener , head of Bronx detectives ." You have to establish each injury , who did it , who was present .What I have is a child dead of multiple serious injuries .We will get the story sooner or later . "Child welfare officials also pledged to sort out the agency 's performance in the case of Delores Tucker .According to case records , a report of potential abuse or neglect was made to the state child-abuse hot line on Oct. 10 .The anonymous report contended that the Tucker apartment was filthy and that domestic violence might have been a problem .Agency workers familiar with the case files said that a caseworker made 11 separate attempts to contact Ms. Tucker and her children , but that the caseworker was successful in only about half the instances .Detectives said the caseworker had discovered crack vials and inadequate food in the apartment .One agency worker said that records indicated that the caseworker concluded that all three children were being maltreated and that a notation of substantiated abuse was filed on Nov. 13 .Other agency workers said that they had seen no such formal finding .The records indicate that the caseworker 's efforts at dealing with the family were complicated by the fact that Ms. Tucker often gave bogus addresses for where she or the children could be found , and at least once she sent the caseworker to a fake address when the worker asked to examine Delores .They said that the caseworker once threatened to have the children taken away in an effort to force Ms. Tucker to make a scheduled meeting , but that this failed .-LRB- STORY CAN END HERE .OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS The records indicate that as recently as Dec. 19 , the caseworker was actively trying to track down the mother and children .The preliminary case records , however , make no mention of an effort to enlist the police or others in an effort to monitor the household .Detectives said Tuesday night that in August Ms. Tucker allowed Delores ' stepfather in Queens to care for the infant and that Delores had only returned to the Bronx apartment two weeks ago .But they said as many as six neighbors were being interviewed who gave accounts of Ms. Tucker 's mistreatment of Delores .The detectives said the surviving children had told investigators that their mother had beaten the three of them regularly .The detectives said the two older children were also marked by signs of abuse , including burn scars and other bruises .
Richard Schwartz , the senior adviser to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the architect of the administration 's workfare program , plans to resign later this month , city officials said Tuesday .Schwartz , who also served as Giuliani 's deputy campaign manager in 1993 , declined to comment on his plans .But administration officials , who spoke on condition of anonymity , said he would leave in a few weeks for a job in the private sector .The officials said he had not yet chosen from among several job offers he has received .As senior adviser , Schwartz , 38 , was a principal theoretician behind many of the Mayor 's plans to reorganize the workings of city government .He was best known for designing and carrying out the Work Experience Program , as the workfare program in New York City is known , which has put more than 122,000 people to work for public assistance benefits .The changes in the welfare program have drawn criticism from welfare advocates as forcing some eligible people off the rolls through an intensive screening program , which often involves interviewing friends and neighbors .But Giuliani considers the program one of his most important accomplishments , and often cites Schwartz for reducing the city 's welfare rolls by more than 200,000 people since 1994 .Schwartz has also been involved in reorganizing several agencies and departments and recent efforts to revamp the school system .
Peter James Roylance , a physician and researcher with Merck Sharp & Dohme , a subsidiary of Merck & Co. , the pharmaceutical company , died Saturday at his home in Long Hill Township , N.J.He was 68 .He suffered a long illness , his family said .Roylance , who joined Merck in his native England in 1975 , retired in September as executive medical director , medical and scientific affairs , at the Merck Human Health Division in Whitehouse Station , N.J.He was the author of numerous papers and first-aid books and had worked in cancer research for 12 years before joining the pharmaceutical industry .Born in Kingston-upon-Hull , England , he received his medical education and training at the University of Bristol before joining the staff of the University of London in 1961 as a lecturer and later as a researcher in hematology .He was appointed clinical research director for Merck Sharp & Dohme Ltd. .UK at Hoddesdon , England , in 1975 .He transferred to the research laboratories in Rahway , N.J. , in 1979 as senior director , clinical research international .In 1982 , he was named to the executive medical director post .He is survived by his wife of 39 years , Peggy Hodgson Roylance ; two daughters , Kate Mahadeva of Sanderstead , England , and Wendy Baugh of London ; a brother , Dr. John Roylance of Bristol ; a sister , Jose Stokes of Clevedon , England , and two granddaughters .
A combination of sleet , rain and snow covered the roads and highways of the New York City region with a thin sheet of ice Tuesday , causing widespread traffic delays and scores of accidents during the afternoon rush , police and traffic officials said .Many sections of the Long Island Expressway , the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn and Queens , and Sunrise Highway in Suffolk County were periodically closed while icy sections were sanded and salted .Major problems were also reported on the Cross Bronx Expressway .The most serious accident occurred on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway near Exit 3 in Seaford , N.Y. , where one motorist was hospitalized in critical condition after his car slid off the road and overturned ." It 's treacherous out there , and there 's lots of black ice , which is hard to see , " said Sgt.Edward Vanderhyde of the Nassau County highway patrol ." The roads in general are pretty icy and we 've received reports of a lot of minor accidents of the fender-bender variety , " he said ." Luckily , most of them are not serious . "The state police reported at least 50 accidents caused by icy conditions in Suffolk County , where traffic officials ordered various sections of the Sunrise Highway and the Long Island Expressway closed for brief periods while the pavement was sanded and salted ." It made for some traffic tie-ups , but it also made for safer roads , " said Officer Santo DiStefano , a spokesman for the Suffolk County police ." None of the closures really lasted very long , but we had to do it , because we were getting accidents all over the place . "The same icy conditions plagued the streets and highways in New York City as officials prepared for New Year 's Eve , fearful that the freezing temperatures and slippery roads would create extremely hazardous conditions , especially for those who drink and drive .Cars began sliding and bumping into one another shortly after 11 a.m. , according to Patrick Muldowney , a spokesman for the New York City Department of Transportation ." Reports of accidents have been coming in all day , including a five-car fender bender on a westbound lane of the 59th Street Bridge , " Muldowney said ." Fortunately there have been no serious injuries . "" Black ice has forced road closings all over the city , " he said ." For example , the Belt Parkway has had several scattered closings . "He said the roads were being reopened " as soon as the sanitation people can get in and throw some sand and salt down . "
The very first minute of 1997 , as brought to you by network television , could hardly have been a more literal display of America 's pre-millennial cultural schizophrenia .New York _ the booming city of falling crime and skyrocketing tourism _ welcomed in the New Year at a moment when Times Square has rarely looked more like Las Vegas , while Las Vegas , enjoying its own boom as the nation 's fastest-growing city , worked overtime to simulate New York .Las Vegas officialdom went so far as to choose midnight New York time as zero-hour for ringing in 1997 with a display of fireworks by New York 's Grucci family , topped by the explosion of the Hacienda , an obsolete hotel .And there 's more New York to come this weekend with the opening of the most overhyped new Las Vegas hotel _ New York-New York , whose facade resembles a backlot set decorator 's Technicolor fantasy of its namesake 's skyline .Back in the real New York , New York , the giddy explosion of Vegas-style electric signage in Times Square is no accident .The new 42nd Street 's planners never hid their esthetic debt to " Learning From Las Vegas , " the landmark 1972 academic treatise in which Robert Venturi , Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour gave the billboards and neon dazzle of the Strip their architectural due .How could the entertainment centers of two cities as radically different as New York and Las Vegas aspire to twinship ? It 's a testament to the popularity of theme-park culture , which can turn any American place into a sanitized replica of any other place for our delectation .While no one misses the mobsters who once ruled the Strip or the porno lords of Times Square , the corporations that have replaced such sleazy entrepreneurs are impersonally multinational , not idiosyncratically indigenous .They can superimpose " New York-New York " or " Las Vegas " anywhere with an efficiency , speed and size that may have been beyond even Walt Disney 's imagination when he plunked down " Main Street U.S.A. " and " Frontierland " in Anaheim .On the Strip , where a $ 6-billion-plus building splurge is under way , mammoth hotels evoking " Paris " and " Venice " are yet to come .In Times Square , the Disney , Warner Brothers and Madame Tussaud 's enclaves are still in embryo .Yet already an air of unreality prevails in both cities .The fabled Glitter Gulch of Las Vegas 's old downtown , Fremont Street , is now the Fremont Street Experience _ an outdoor mall in which the sky is blocked out by metal sheathing for the nightly projection of laser-light shows .It 's as oppressively anti-urban in character as the faceless Marriott Marquis Hotel that gave bland corporate culture its first foothold in Times Square in the 80s .But urbanites shouldn't begin a new year in despair .The story is hardly over yet .New York and Las Vegas remain cities , not gated theme parks , and both the people who live in them and visit them have an unruly dynamism of their own .For all Las Vegas 's costly , much-publicized recent efforts to turn itself into a family resort , gambling still rules .The enormous amusement park built beside the MGM Grand was deserted when I visited it last spring ; now it 's going to be radically scaled back , even as other casino hotels are dropping once highly touted plans for day-care centers and other child-friendly blandishments .So all-consuming is gambling , and so intrinsic is it to Las Vegas 's identity , that the city still lacks any cultural institution to rival its strip-mall shrine to Liberace even though its population is of the same magnitude as Washington and San Francisco .Similarly , a refurbished Times Square can not in itself reverse New York 's identity : 42nd Street is still within walking distance of both rending urban squalor and the Museum of Modern Art .Yes , it was uplifting of the city to import the beloved Oseola McCarty , the philanthropic former washerwoman from Hattiesburg , Miss. , to preside over the ball-lowering Tuesday night _ though she had previously neither celebrated New Year 's Eve nor heard of Times Square .But even as this angelic symbol of the new Times Square hit town , flimflam men bearing suitcases of fake gold watches were nonetheless doing a lively business in front of a fabled relic of the old Times Square , the Palace Theater .Right under the marquee of Disney 's " Beauty and the Beast . "
The New York Times said in an editorial on Wednesday , Jan. 1 :After struggling with entrenched mismanagement for more than a year and a half , the financial control board that effectively runs the District of Columbia has taken over the schools , ordered new accounting and personnel systems and cut about 3,000 jobs from one of the most bloated city governments in the country .About 1,000 more jobs will be cut soon .These extraordinary measures were necessary to stay within the spending limits mandated by Congress , and to convince the White House and a skeptical financial community that the District is committed to fiscal restraint .But the city can not cut its way to recovery .Fiscal health will require not only stringency at City Hall but also relief from a federal government that adds to the District 's burdens while restricting its ability to raise revenue .President Clinton signed the law creating the fiscal control board in the spring of 1995 , after years of mismanagement had brought the District to the edge of collapse .The board , under its chairman , Andrew Brimmer , has uncovered one financial scandal after another but has yet to achieve a full grasp of the tangled accounting and personnel systems that conceal the full extent of the city 's problems .New accounting systems should be on line within the year , allowing the board to make fine distinctions .For now , the cuts are being made almost blindly , as the board tries frantically to reach its targets .The reason that budget cuts alone will not save the city is that they do not address a deeper problem .The federal government saddles the city with all manner of debt while curtailing its ability to raise revenue .The federals occupy 41 percent of the city 's land but pay only a fraction of what the city would earn if the land were fully taxed .Congress further damages the city by forbidding it to levy a commuter tax on many thousands of suburban residents who work there , much as New York taxes workers from Connecticut and New Jersey .As a result , more than 60 percent of the income earned within the District goes untaxed .In addition , the District now has a $ 5 billion pension liability , most of it for workers who were regarded as federal employees until the city won home rule and took over an unfunded federal pension plan .All this greatly disheartens District residents , rich and poor alike .Though they pay some of the highest tax rates in the country , public services and the quality of life in many neighborhoods have declined .This has accelerated the flight to the suburbs , which in turn has further eroded the tax base and the capacity of the city to pay its bills and maintain a decent level of basic services .The control board is making headway where Mayors Sharon Pratt Kelly and Marion Barry have failed .But the federal government will clearly have to play a much more aggressive role .After all , the city at risk here is the the seat of that government .The District 's nonvoting representative to Congress , Eleanor Holmes Norton , has long urged the government to increase the pittance it pays the city in lieu of taxes .Ms. Norton has also urged tax relief for local residents and pleaded with Congress to permit a commuter tax , so that the city can capture revenue that most other cities regard as bread and butter .The federal government is right to withhold help until the city has its finances under control .But it must eventually provide more aid if the District of Columbia is to survive as a functioning city .
The New York Times said in an editorial on Wednesday , Jan. 1 :The proposed merger of Brooklyn Union Gas and Long Island Lighting Co. should provide Long Island residents some modest financial relief .But those residents will still pay more for their utility bills than most Americans do .The solution to their problem is for state leaders to put aside partisan bickering and agree on a plan that would allow the state to assume LILCO 's huge debt .A merger would allow the companies to cut administrative and other costs .It would also bring Brooklyn Union 's highly regarded management skills to bear on LILCO 's gas operations .Most experts agree that the merger could produce savings of about $ 1 billion over 10 years , knocking a few percentage points off utility rates .But the major reason that Long Island rates are high is that LILCO makes exorbitant interest payments on money it borrowed to build a $ 5.5 billion nuclear plant , Shoreham , which Gov. Mario Cuomo refused to open following intense opposition by nearby residents .The problem could be solved by engaging in what amounts to a legal tax dodge .A state agency , the Long Island Power Authority , would take over part of LILCO .The state-owned utility would no longer pay federal taxes on income or dividends to shareholders .It could borrow money at tax-free , therefore low , interest rates .Replacing high-cost debt with tax-free debt and other savings would cut utility rates by perhaps 12 percent .In effect , the state would be shifting hundreds of millions of dollars of interest payments each year onto the federal Treasury .Democrats and Republicans agree that a partial state takeover is the answer .But some Democratic leaders want the state to take over almost all of LILCO , including its transmission wires and power plants .Under this plan , the newly formed Brooklyn-LILCO would keep only LILCO 's gas operations .Republican leaders would transfer control of only LILCO 's transmission and distribution facilities , permitting Brooklyn-LILCO to keep LILCO 's power plants as well as its gas operations .By controlling the transmission lines , the state could invite utility companies around the country to compete to sell electricity to Long Island customers .Either plan could work as long as the state makes sure there are additional transmission lines to the Island so that other power companies can compete for business .Once Albany resolves how to take over LILCO 's debt payments , then Brooklyn Union and a pared-down LILCO can complete merger plans .But if the companies merge without a state takeover of LILCO 's debt , Long Islanders will reap little more than scraps .
The New York Times said in an editorial on Wednesday , Jan. 1 :North Korea 's apology Sunday for attempting to infiltrate South Korea by submarine-borne commandos last September was remarkable enough , coming as it did from a country whose past statements have been largely limited to apocalyptic military threats and crude ideological belligerence .But Pyongyang 's expression of " deep regret " for the submarine episode and its promise to make sure that such infiltrations will not be repeated turns out to be part of an even broader and more promising diplomatic breakthrough .For years , North Korea has tried to freeze out South Korea by seeking an exclusive dialogue with the United States .But in the process of negotiating the apology for the still-mysterious submarine incident , which left 24 North Korean commandos and several South Korean civilians dead , Washington has won the North 's agreement to meet jointly with Seoul and Washington as a prelude to talks on officially ending the Korean War .This is an impressive diplomatic triumph , turning a crisis into a chance for peace .It may also signal a significant easing of North Korea 's dangerous isolation from the rest of the world .The Clinton administration and its individual negotiators deserve high marks .North Korea did not apologize directly , as it should have , to South Korea , which Pyongyang ritually denounced on Monday .Nevertheless , the wording , carefully negotiated between North Korea and the United States , was designed to meet Seoul 's minimum conditions for resuming pragmatic cooperation with the North .That cooperation will now occur on several levels .There will be the proposed peace talks , which are meant to include the United States and China as well as the two Koreas .South Korea will help replace North Korea 's nuclear power reactors with models less likely to produce potential bomb fuel .Finally , Seoul should now also feel sufficiently mollified to resume humanitarian food assistance to alleviate a flood-produced famine in the North .For its part , North Korea accompanied its statement of apology with an agreement to maintain storage safeguards on its spent reactor fuel and Washington indicated that it will now unfreeze export licenses for commercial food shipments to the North .North Korea 's actions this week suggest strongly that the long-isolated Communist regime may indeed be nervously seeking to re-enter the community of civilized nations .No outsider can be sure about what goes on in Pyongyang 's inner circles .But the apology and the agreement to meet jointly with Washington and Seoul seems to support the administration 's hopes that careful diplomatic engagement could encourage steps toward North-South peace .Ever since the Bush administration , American policy has been based on the assumption that North Korea fears deeply for its future in a world where it can no longer count on the support of its two giant neighbors , Russia and China , for support .Both of those countries have strengthened their ties with the more prosperous South Korean regime at Pyongyang 's expense .North Korea has also been suffering from severe food shortages following two years of disastrous floods .Washington fears that these adverse developments could tempt Northern leaders into rash military adventures or precipitate a sudden and disastrous economic collapse .But it also believes that careful diplomacy can avert these dangers .That is why , despite the impatience of some critics , Washington has moved deliberately and delicately to reach an accommodation on issues like nuclear safeguards , food assistance and the submarine affair .That strategy has now been rewarded with two quick successes , the submarine apology and the promise of wider talks .It is important for the two Koreas to build on this week 's achievements , the South by moving ahead with food relief and the new nuclear reactors , the North by entering formal peace talks and permanently suspending its propaganda attacks on South Korea and its elected leaders .