Word: kim
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...ASIA Terror: Hambali's heir apparent North Korea: Kim's next move South Korea: Reunification...
...risks touching off an arms race as technologically advanced countries, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, hasten to build nuclear equalizers of their own. Pyongyang is under immense pressure to deal, and a look around the region offers a snapshot of how stressful life will be for the Kim regime if this week's talks founder. Russia, an old cold war ally, is currently staging a massive military exercise near the North Korean border, together with two of North Korea's traditional enemies, Japan and South Korea. The Australian and U.S. navies will muster in the Coral Sea in September...
...Indeed, to the outside world it would seem in Kim's best interest to move swiftly to settlement. "North Korean leaders realize their economy is very sick, and they don't want it to die," says a Western diplomat in Seoul. Though Kim would not immediately get from the U.S. his full wish list?a security guarantee, diplomatic ties and an end to economic sanctions?aid would flow if he opened his nuclear programs to the invasive inspections that the U.S. and its allies demand...
...Still, in the past when Kim has emerged from his hardened bunker, he has proven to be a maddeningly immovable negotiator. Talks leading to the 1994 Agreed Framework took 55 rounds to complete; current talks have not begun, yet already the North has set the process back by threatening to export nuclear bombs. "These are people who believe in letting 20% of their people starve if necessary," says Adrian Buzo, an Australian scholar who was a diplomat in Pyongyang in the 1970s. "They already have missiles. They have rudimentary nuclear devices. What can the world offer them...
...before they even begin. "I worry the Americans are only negotiating to show they tried diplomacy but wouldn't mind seeing the talks break down," says Zhang Tuosheng, director of research at the Foundation for International Strategic Studies in Beijing. Ultimately, Zhang fears, the Bush Administration wants to topple Kim. So what happens if Kim continues to stall and cheat? "At the end of that road lies the fate of Saddam Hussein," says a Western diplomat in Seoul. That's a far different path than the peaceful byway envisioned by Clinton nine years...