Word: pyongyang
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Foggy Bottom, the response could be: Why not, indeed? The worst-kept diplomatic secret in the world may be that the State Department pretty much sees eye to eye with North Korea on a central issue: Washington should deal with Pyongyang one-on-one. The multilateral approach of the six-party talks has been at best cumbersome and at worst counterproductive, some diplomats say. Charles L. (Jack) Pritchard, Bush's former special envoy to the DPRK, has said all the participants in the talks "made it abundantly clear" that they support direct U.S. engagement, including the Chinese, the North...
...Gibbs. But in truth, North Korea's latest gambit could not have been altogether surprising to anyone in Washington - least of all to the State Department diplomats who have been dealing with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for the past decade. They know that even in Pyongyang, North Korean officials have access to the Internet. If they cared to, they could have read yesterday's New York Times, which reported that the Obama Administration is considering dropping the U.S. demand that Iran cease enriching uranium before any direct Washington-Tehran talks about Iran's nuclear program. This...
...likely the White House shares this view, even though in public it has harped on getting the North Koreans back to the six-party format. This is probably no longer possible, after Pyongyang's announcement yesterday. So the trick for Obama now is twofold. He must figure out how much time to let pass before trying to re-engage the North. (Even before the April 5 launch, Obama's special envoy, Stephen Bosworth, talked of letting the "dust from the missile [test] settle.") Then Obama must decide what to say to Pyongyang whenever the moment of reaching out arrives...
...Executing this seemingly simple agenda is more complicated than it appears. Obama, as Bosworth intimated, has to let a decent interval pass after the U.N. reprimand lest he appear to be caving in to pressure from Pyongyang. He can't dawdle, though. North Korea continues to be a serial proliferator of missile and nuclear technology. More sanctions, the diplomatic crowd argues, aren't obtainable, as the recent U.N. exercise showed, and in any event they don't work against a regime that seems to enjoy pain. The only way to get a grip on the danger the North poses...
...Once talks begin, the U.S. ought to be willing to put a range of blandishments on the table - just as it has in the past. Economic aid, security guarantees and, down the road, even diplomatic recognition for North Korea - all that would be available to Pyongyang, so long as it verifiably stands down its nuclear program and curbs its missile exports. The State Department's position has long been that this sort of deal is achievable. It believes the North will abide by agreements it makes, so long as the U.S. does the same by providing the benefits it promises...