Even if the next president finally readies the country for a long-range, comprehensive program, it will take another decade to implement.

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And three to six months of assistance to unemployed home-owners is not a program with long-range chances of success, given the length of time that workers are remaining unemployed, unable to find new jobs after being unemployed for a year or two.

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The U.S. and other countries, most notably Korea's close neighbor Japan, are deeply worried by the North's long-range ballistic-missile program, which Pyongyang has put on hold but not abandoned.

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