WASHINGTON — America is returning to an appearance of semi-realism when it comes to the topic of whether North Korea is going to come clean on its entire nuclear program and is willing to dismantle the whole show.

The answer to both questions, as anyone with a modicum of common sense should know, is no. The American special envoy, Christopher Hill, has been valiantly attempting to demonstrate otherwise, but the imminent rise of a conservative president in South Korea, coupled with North Korea’s denial of anything to do with secretly developing nukes with highly-enriched uranium, means that Mr. Hill’s quest cannot be successful.

Not that Mr. Hill has been wasting his time completely. Patiently following through on all the possibilities, with the blessing of Secretary of State Rice, he has demonstrated the anxiety of America to reach a settlement short of any form of coercion on the nuclear issue.

Mr. Hill’s quest reached its zenith, perhaps, when he worked out an elaborate formula for moving North Korean funds from the obscure bank in Macao through which Pyongyang had been channeling counterfeit $100 bills. As a result, the U.S. Treasury — bowing to intense pressure — removed the bank from a blacklist that had cut North Korea off from all dealings with foreign banks, including those in China, its only real friend and benefactor.

North Korea, though, shows no sign of seriously living up to the agreement reached at six-nation talks in Beijing last February at which its envoy promised to acknowledge all its nuclear activities and then disable and dismantle them, in exchange for a vast infusion of energy aid. A high-level New York lawyer, Jay Lefkowitz, who holds the part-time position of envoy on human rights for the American administration, spoke out realistically — and reasonably — on the topic at a talk here in which he said North Korea was “not serious about disarming in a timely manner.” Indeed, he told a gathering at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, it is “increasingly clear that North Korea will remain in its present nuclear status when the administration leaves office in one year.” America, he advised, “should consider a new approach to North Korea.”

These words, for anyone who’s been closely following events on the Korean peninsula, are undeniable. All that’s deniable is the disavowal of a State Department spokesman, who said that Mr. Lefkowitz was merely expressing “his own opinion” and his remarks did not ” represent the views of the administration.”

The remarks of the State Department official may be read as an exercise in diplomacy calculated to mollify the administration of South Korea’s outgoing president, Roh Moo-hyun, who has dedicated his five years in office to building on the Sunshine policy of his predecessor, Kim Dae-jung. Assuming that American diplomats in Seoul have a rudimentary hold on reality, we have to believe somewhere in the State Department someone is saying, hold on, North Korea is not going to comply, let’s stop deluding ourselves.

The need for reality is all the more pressing in view of the contrasting position of President-elect Lee Myung-bak, who’s been saying he wants to help in North Korea’s economic revival and is even willing to meet North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il but with crucial conditions. The first is that Mr. Lee has been saying all along that North Korea first has to give up its nuclear program and has to submit to “verification” of compliance.

Mr. Lee has also called for reciprocity in return for aid — an issue that’s likely to come up very soon after his inauguration on February 25 when North Korea comes through with its annual request for several hundred thousand tons of rice and fertilizer. Mr. Lee then will have the chance to demand the return of a number of South Korean prisoners captured during the Korean War and several hundred South Korean fishermen picked up in North Korea waters. Finally, he’s promised to raise the issue of “human rights,” barred from all discussion with the North during the ten years of attempts at reconciliation under the Kim Dae-jung and Roh administrations.

It’s significant, then, that Mr. Lefkowitz’s mission as envoy for North Korean human rights, a position mandated under an all-but-forgotten bill on North Korean human rights enacted nearly four years ago, is to speak and act on behalf of the victims of terrible human rights abuses. Although appointed by President Bush, Mr. Lefkowitz as an advocate has been ignored. If anyone in the State Department has been listening to him, it’s to say he’s not one of us, he does not represent American policy, he’s an annoyance.

In fact, however, Mr. Lefkowitz does speak for important elements within the American administration that have been more or less forced into silence while Mr. Hill jets about in pursuit of a nuclear-free Korea. His remarks do not represent an extreme position. Nor do they pose a threat. Rather, they are a wake-up call for anyone who thinks North Korea is living up to the word of the agreement so optimistically concluded nearly a year ago.

Mr. Kirk, author of two books on Korea, is a freelance correspondent based in Seoul and Washington, D.C.