Word: pyongyang
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North Korea may no longer be branded by the United States as part of a global "axis of evil," but the recent arrest of two American journalists there is throwing a serious wrench in the Obama administration's goal to make Pyongyang a nuclear non-proliferating power. Today, North Korea announced that two female U.S. reporters, arrested March 17, will stand trial for acts against the state. If convicted, the women, who have been held in Pyongyang since their arrest, could land in jail for at least five years. The announcement closely follows last week's sentencing of another...
...Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were working for San Francisco based Current TV at the time of their arrest, will be put on trial to face criminal charges for entering North Korea with "hostile intent." Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said Friday that the North decided to indict the women reporters "based on criminal data confirmed." The pair were detained by North Korean guards last month after allegedly straying across the border, an unmarked halfway point on the Tumen River dividing China and northeastern North Korea. The U.S State Department, which already has its hands full trying...
...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...