Word: pyongyang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Bush softened his position in hopes of resolving the nuclear standoff with North Korea. Bush said that if North Korea stopped making atomic weapons he would consider a "bold initiative" to provide energy and food to the country - the first time Washington has signaled its willingness to engage Pyongyang. A belligerent response, however, indicated that North Korea is not interested in retreating from the brinkmanship that has led it to kick out international nuclear inspectors and withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Bush's "loudmouthed supply of energy and food aid are like...
...some form of written guarantee that the U.S. will respect the country's sovereignty and security. The North Korean response was decidedly snotty (it described President Bush's offer as a "deceptive drama to mislead world opinion") but analysts interpret the remarks as typically shrill North Korean bargaining. Pyongyang will try and hold out for a formal non-aggression pact, while the Bush Administration will likely offer some lesser form of written security guarantee. But the nuclear brinkmanship appears designed primarily as a negotiating tactic to pressure the U.S. and its allies into new concessions...
...shape of the deal emerging as South Korea takes the leading role in talking to Pyongyang involves a return to the fundamentals of the 1994 Clinton agreement - the North Koreans agree to refrain from developing nuclear weapons and are offered food and energy aid as part of a process aimed at "full normalization of political and economic relations." The reason South Korea is trying to revive that deal is that it broke down at both ends: The North Koreans sought new ways of producing weapons-grade nuclear fuel via centrifuges, and trashed the spirit of rapprochement by test-firing missiles...
...blithely naive sentiments of youth, perhaps, but they help to explain why the South Korean government seems to be running interference for Pyongyang these days. Since admitting in October that it has a covert nuclear-weapons program, North Korea has consistently upped the pressure to force the U.S. into talks, restarting a mothballed reactor that could produce weapons material in violation of international accords and evicting International Atomic Energy Agency monitors. The latest provocation came last week, when the North announced it was pulling out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Magna Carta of international efforts to stem the spread...
...State for East Asian Affairs James Kelly was scheduled to meet with representatives of South Korea, China, Japan and other countries. More tellingly, the U.S. last week even opened a channel of communication with the North. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador with experience negotiating with Pyongyang on tricky issues, held unofficial talks with two North Korean envoys...