Word: pyongyang
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Stephen Bosworth, the diplomat President Barack Obama appointed to the thankless task of trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear-weapons program, got quite a reception when he arrived on his first official visit to Seoul this week. The North Korean government in Pyongyang shut down the last military communication line between the two countries on the divided peninsula, temporarily halted all transit to and from a special industrial zone just north of the border and declared that if the U.S. or Japan should try to shoot down a long-range missile the North is expected...
...That's putting it mildly. Many diplomats in East Asia believe that getting the North to stand down its nukes may be a lost cause. It's easy, given the timing, to attribute Pyongyang's recent bellicose rhetoric as standard stuff: the North always ratchets up tensions whenever the U.S. and South Korea hold major military exercises, as they are doing this week. And many North Korea watchers in Seoul believe the recent tone is simply intended to soften up a new Administration in Washington. Again, fairly predictable for the North Korean regime. (See pictures of North Koreans going...
...clear that the usual diplomatic arc with Pyongyang - public fits intended to strengthen its bargaining position for an eventual return to the table - is in play right now. If in the next few weeks the North launches what it terms a "satellite intended for peaceful purposes" - in truth, a long-range missile capable of reaching Alaska - it will be the North's most provocative act since it tested a nuke in the autumn of 2006. Bosworth and, earlier, his boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have already beseeched the Chinese to intervene with the North, and diplomats in Seoul...
...would be disastrous for his nation, which barely functions economically even in peacetime. Clinton and the state department must let North Korea know that we are sick of playing the “cry wolf” game. Our military exercises will continue, and the government in Pyongyang can either grow up, or issue another statement to deaf ears. For now, North Korea has given the world no reason to take it seriously...
...Hillary Clinton's choice to be Special Representative for North Korea Policy, Stephen W. Bosworth, is probably as well-prepared as anyone for the challenge. A career diplomat with years of experience in Asia, Bosworth, 69, is a former Ambassador to South Korea who led the effort to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program in 1994 that resulted in the Agreed Framework treaty. Bosworth was dispatched Monday on his first mission to Asia; he is expected to discuss ways to best bring momentum to the deadlocked six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament involving...