Word: pyongyang
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North Korean diplomats have exasperated Americans since the Korean War, when the top U.S. armistice negotiator denounced them as "treacherous savages." Last week U.S. diplomats felt much the same as the third round of talks in Geneva to halt Pyongyang's nuclear-development program not only stalled but slid backward...
North Korea's tough-guy bargaining and brazen attempts to retract concessions already given were so unyielding that the U.S. asked for a recess and recalled its negotiators to Washington for consultations. Was the impasse just aggressive brinkmanship by the hard men of Pyongyang or the end of the diplomatic opening begun in June during Jimmy Carter's visit with North Korean strongman Kim Il Sung? The negotiators were not sure, but a State Department official was worried that "we're on the brink of a serious breach...
Still, the optimism born of the last talks in August, when the U.S. thought + it had resolved several key disputes, has dissipated. Pyongyang had agreed to replace its suspect gas-graphite reactor at Yongbyon and two larger ones under construction with two light-water reactors that would generate far less plutonium that could be used in bombs. The U.S. had promised its allies would pay most of the $4 billion price...
...military, in a rare public intervention, said it wouldn't allow U.N. inspectors near the country's nuclear power plants to see whether they house anything fishy -- like nuclear warheads. The Ministry of the People's Armed Forces apparently wants to stymie the talks between the U.S. and Pyongyang, but some North Korean diplomats have suggested its sights are set lower: all the Ministry want is to halt U.S.-Japanese naval maneuvers off the Korean Coast, which the brass has unilaterally construed as an unfair scare tactic...
...North Korea talks over Pyongyang's nuclear program may not be as upbeat as U.S. officials predicted before discussions resumed Friday in Geneva after a six-week break. The two sides today attempted to bridge new gaps that arose over the weekend, with no reports of progress. The U.S. is complaining that North Korea suddenly won't allow previously agreed-to U.N. inspections of its nuke plants; Pyongyang is crying foul over a joint American-Japanese naval exercise off the Korean coast...