Word: pyongyang
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...expect that to happen. They believe North Korea 3.0 - the "shame on you" policy - may pay off. "I doubt they're walking away," says one diplomat involved in the talks. Yes, they say, North Korea's obvious and serial proliferation is a huge problem. That's why getting Pyongyang to mothball its plutonium program has already been a significant accomplishment. Convincing Kim to surrender his stash of weapons, and whatever plutonium it has left over, would be another big step forward, and should remain the focus of the Administration's policy...
...Hill will need to turn up the heat on North Korea even more. His somewhat unlikely ally in pressuring Pyongyang is Lee Myung Bak, 66, the newly inaugurated President of South Korea. Lee, a conservative who says he wants closer ties with Washington, has vowed to take a tougher line toward his uncooperative Northern neighbor, in stark contrast to the "Sunshine Policy" Seoul has pursued for the past 10 years. This program of engagement allowed North Korea, without giving up much of anything, to gorge on a smorgasbord of South Korean aid amounting to more than $800 million...
...Bush Administration. Indeed, the two countries seem to be taking pains to present a united front. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in March stood shoulder to shoulder with Lee's Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan in Seoul while Yu said that "time and patience is running out" on Pyongyang's foot-dragging...
...Whether or not this U.S.-South Korea partnership will budge Pyongyang is an open question. The current bottleneck in negotiations is over an American demand that Pyongyang fully reveals all of its nuclear facilities, as well as acts of proliferation of nuclear know-how (including a suspected instance involving Syria). But the tide may turn in favor of the allies: after growing slightly for seven years, the North Korean economy contracted by 1.1% in 2006, according to South Korea's central bank, and a bad harvest has worsened chronic food shortages, say North Korea watchers. Lee has pledged to maintain...
...course, the strategy could also backfire. Pyongyang at the moment is still talking to the U.S., but North Korea in the past has proven almost impervious to economic punishment. The Rodong Sinmun already warned that Lee's hard line "throws a hurdle in the way of the settlement of the nuclear issue." Kim Jong Il, after all, is always looking for an excuse to break his word...