Word: pyongyang
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...even if the Bush administration had reached consensus over the idea of offering North Korea security guarantees and economic aid in exchange for a verifiable nuclear disarmament by Pyongyang, it's far from clear that that the North Koreans have any intention of genuinely renouncing nukes. They've broken four previous agreements to get this far, and many U.S. and South Korean officials conclude that the North Korean regime may have decided to pursue a nuclear deterrent as the guarantor of its survival irrespective of the diplomatic state of play. After all, it's logical to assume that those countries...
...find. The best that could be hoped for, the consensus among diplomats held, was that the parties will at least agree to keep talking. So far, the North Koreans have raised the stakes on the U.S. by announcing new nuclear achievements, and there are considerable grounds for fearing that Pyongyang may once again play hardball. If so, the U.S. will hope that the exercise at least impresses on the host nation, China, the need to crank up the pressure on its wayward protege...
...obstacles to reaching agreement in Beijing are monumental. The four additional parties to the talks are in agreement with the U.S. in demanding an immediate and verifiable halt to North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but they are also sympathetic to Pyongyang's demand for guarantees that it won't be attacked by the U.S. The Bush administration is reluctant to offer any concessions, which would in effect reward North Korea's violation of previous treaties. By assembling a coalition of nations capable, by virtue of their economic ties to North Korea, to press Pyongyang to desist from going nuclear...
...cannot be trusted to keep agreements, and the White House came out in support of a speech by the arch-hawk Undersecretary of State for Non-Proliferation John Bolton that described Kim as a "tyrant" keeping his people imprisoned in a "living hell" and warned against giving in to Pyongyang's nuclear "extortion." That speech, a U.S. diplomat told TIME, "basically called for regime change," and that's in line with the neo-conservative chorus in Washington who have repeatedly warned against any "appeasement" in the form of security guarantees that keep an odious regime intact. Just last week...
...agreement under which North Korea undertook to refrain from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for economic aid. But the U.S. has shown little interest in reviving a failed agreement, and is insisting that the North Koreans agree to unconditional disarmament as a precondition for further talks. Pyongyang won't drop its nuclear deterrent without security guarantees, and the standoff continues, leaving little room for optimism over this week's talks. Diplomats hope that the U.S. and North Korea can at least be persuaded to agree to swap security undertakings for a nuclear freeze for the duration of a negotiation process...