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...Strangelove Visits North Korea A selection of some of the most interesting items on North Korean president Kim Jong Il and his testing of a nuclear weapon
...Diplomats from China, North Korea and the U.S. announced the agreement Tuesday after informal talks in Beijing, and it came only a day after the top American general in South Korea warned that Kim Jong Il would likely conduct further nuclear and missile tests before the end of the year. Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. envoy to North Korea, told reporters in Beijing that talks could resume "in November or possibly December," and that Pyongyang had reaffirmed its commitment to a preliminary agreement that had been reached last September, shortly before the talks fizzled when the U.S. cracked down...
...them teeth, and Chinese envoys made repeated trips to Pyongyang over the last several weeks. The message was clear: North Korea had embarrassed Beijing by testing a nuclear device despite repeated warnings by the Chinese against doing so. By at least agreeing to return to the six-party talks, Kim is preventing a loss in international face for his status-conscious friends in Beijing. The fact that China's rival Japan had begun making noises about the possibility, however remote, of starting its own nuclear program undoubtedly added to the pressure...
...over the new round of six-party talks. It won't escape the notice of officials in Tokyo that Japanese diplomats were apparently not involved in the talks that brought Pyongyang back to the table. Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose term started just two weeks before Kim's nuclear test, has built support with the Japanese public by standing firm against North Korea. If Abe is seen to go soft, he could lose his conservative political base, already shaken by his recent diplomatic overtures to Beijing and Seoul. While Abe has repeatedly declared that Japan...
...Korea's chief reason to resume the negotiations. Despite U.N. sanctions, South Korea, which favors engagement with the North, has been slow to reduce aid and trade with Pyongyang, while the South Korean public is just as likely to blame President Bush for the nuclear standoff as it is Kim Jong Il. Even after the test, China and South Korea still fear a collapsing North Korea more than they do a nuclear one, while Japan and the U.S. would like nothing more than to see Kim gone. Russia, for its part, sometimes appears content to just observe the diplomatic gridlock...