President Bush has proposed removing North Korea from the U.S. list of terrorist-sponsoring nations in an attempt to save the nuclear arms deal with the communist nation.

Earlier this year, Mr. Bush agreed to remove North Korea from the terrorist list as part of the incentive to halt its nuclear weapons activities and eventually eliminate its nuclear arsenal.

But when Pyongyang would not allow intrusive weapons inspections, the deal fell through. In recent weeks, North Korea has begun to reactivate its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

Thus, President Bush has acted to save the talks and perhaps fulfill a foreign policy goal before his second term runs out.

However, this is not a bilateral issue, but six-nation talks. Hence, the administration has to check with its allies — China, South Korea, Russia and Japan — about the move. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was discussing the matter with foreign ministers of China, South Korea and Japan on Friday, and was to talk with Russia as well.

Last week, U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill worked out an arrangement with the North Koreans — that the United States would provisionally remove North Korea from its "state sponsors of terrorism" list once the North agrees to allow outside verification of its nuclear program.

On Friday, U.S. officials made a point of saying the administration was waiting to see if the other nations agreed with the action before moving forward.

The multilateral approach is definitely best in this situation. It is a welcome contrast to the administration's earlier tendencies to go it alone.