Word: pyongyang
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...geopolitical charade known as the six-party talks?the international diplomatic game in which North Korea pretends to consider denuclearizing, while five other countries at the table pretend to believe Pyongyang is serious?seem to have entered a new and surreal phase. By many yardsticks (to pick just one: the amount of plutonium in Kim Jong Il's nuclear arsenal), the North Korean nuclear problem is decidedly more acute today than it was before the negotiating process began two years ago. Thus far, the fourth round of talks has been as fruitless as the previous three. After 13 days...
...North Korea. Although Rice is known to have expressed skepticism that Kim Jong Il is prepared to give up his nuclear arsenal in exchange for promises of aid and trade, she nonetheless secured White House approval to allow Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy to the six-party negotiations with Pyongyang, to exchange views with the North Koreans face to face--authority that was never granted to Powell. With Hill at the six-party talks in Beijing last week, Rice lobbied other members of the Bush team not to undermine Hill's efforts and phoned Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing...
...completely. But there was evidence of modest progress last week. For one thing, there was a series of private discussions between the two main players, the U.S. and North Korea, that seemed to indicate a softening of the Bush Administration's stance that it would not deal directly with Pyongyang. Previous talks were marked by bellicose rhetoric from the North, but Hill described the current bilateral discussions as "businesslike." Considering the high stakes involved, "neither Pyongyang nor Washington want to be blamed for having things break down," says Peter Beck, Seoul-based head of the International Crisis Group, an independent...
...needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against a "hostile" U.S., is arguing that a deal must include removal of any U.S. nuclear threat in the region?a nonstarter with Washington. The North also wants to keep its nascent civilian nuclear program, but the U.S. fears that would mean Pyongyang could still sell the building blocks of nuclear weapons technology to terrorists and other rogue nations. The two countries also remain at loggerheads over the timing of aid given to the North in exchange for verifiable disarmament. Hill indicated the U.S. might be open to a program in which the North...
...balance, even if the new South Korean negotiating proposal has its limitations, there is room for guarded optimism. Seoul's electricity offer is indeed a big carrot. And Pyongyang should realize that if it keeps saying no to big incentives, even those countries that presently fear confrontation will have an increasingly hard time telling American hard-liners why they refuse to contemplate coercion against the North...