Word: pyongyang
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...cruising unimpeded through capital cities, the grand conference rooms, the hordes of assistants and aides-international diplomacy can be a grindingly tough and draining business. For three years, Christopher Hill, the lead U.S. negotiator in the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea, had sought a Grand Bargain with Pyongyang, only to be frustrated at every turn. Finally, in the early hours of Feb. 13, that changed. Thanks in part to the Chinese, who played the stern taskmaster during the latest round of negotiations in Beijing ("they kept us up very late," Hill later joked), the State Department diplomat...
...Optimists who believe the talks may actually get somewhere this time say the basic tension underlying the Bush Administration's stance toward North Korea - does it want a nuclear deal with Pyongyang or does it seek to punish it via isolation and sanctions - has been resolved. As a senior Administration official told TIME in mid December, "Our clear priority is reaching an agreement for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula...
...presumption, then, is that U.S. engineered financial sanctions that have so irritated Pyongyang will be dealt away as part of a grand compromise. The U.S. clearly struck a nerve when in September 2005 the Treasury Department pressured a Macao bank, Banco Delta Asia, to freeze North Korean accounts held there. (Treasury accomplished this mainly by getting major banks in the U.S. to shut down their correspondent accounts with Banco Delta Asia, effectively isolating it from the international financial system). The U.S. has said it suspects the North uses the accounts to launder money gained through counterfeiting U.S. currency and narcotics...
...Will the sanctions, in fact, be dealt away if Pyongyang agrees to shut down Yongbyon and take other steps to stand down its nukes? Ultimately that's President Bush's decision, and he was recently asked point blank whether whether the U.S. was going to lift them. His response (to an interviewer from the Wall Street Journal editorial page): "They've got to give up their weapons program...
...North commits to specific actions eliminating its nuclear program - and then actually takes them - the sanctions come off. The tough part is that the North doesn't want to be seen succumbing to U.S. pressure. A deal would thus require negotiating language and action that would (1) allow Pyongyang to save face as it gives up a valued program and (2) permit Washington to claim a breakthrough without looking like it's rewarded a rogue nation. Oh, and (1) and (2) have to happen just about simultaneously...