answer:Bush lumped Iran, Iraq, and North Korea together as the Axis of Evil in his 2002 State of the Union address. There was promise late in the Clinton years of a breakthrough by Madeline Albright with North Korea. However, Clinton’s term ended. When Bush took over, a large part of his administration did not want anything to do with any progress in any area made by the Clinton Administration. Bush suspended any talks with N Korea until a complete review of foreign policy could be conducted. And then there was never a consensus on North Korea within the White House, and thus nothing really happened for eight years. Read this report from 2009.