As you all know, North Korea has announced its intention to rejoin the six-party talks. Here’s the meat of the statement:
A special mention should be made of the fact that delegates of the DPRK Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Department of State met in New York from June 30 to July 1 and exhaustively negotiated the issue of providing the DPRK with a justification for returning to the six-party talks and reached a consensus of views on the matter in the main.
Accordingly, the U.S. side at the contact made between the heads of both delegations in Beijing Saturday clarified that it would recognise the DPRK as a sovereign state, not to invade it and hold bilateral talks within the framework of the six-party talks and the DPRK side interpreted it as a retraction of its remark designating the former as an outpost of tyranny and decided to return to the six-party talks.
As seen above, the resumption of the talks has been possible only thanks to the principled and independent stand and tireless and sincere efforts of the DPRK side for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
The outcome of the DPRK-U.S. contact clearly proves that it is possible to settle any problem when the parties concerned directly come out to solve it.
The neighbouring countries supporting the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and those related to it have also made efforts for the resumption of the talks.
But Japan has done nothing for it.
The resumption of the talks itself is important but the most essential thing is for the talks to have an in-depth discussion on ways of denuclearising the Korean peninsula to make substantial progress in the talks.
The DPRK will do its utmost for it.”
Just to note, while the jab at the Japanese isn’t surprising, coming from North Korea, the Dong-A Ilbo wondered whether U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s omission of Japanese efforts during her press conference in Beijing on Sunday might have been intentional. For what it’s worth, she did mention Japan during an interview with FOX News’ James Rosen later that day:
This has been an intensive round of diplomacy. I was out here just weeks after being named Secretary, and I remember working through this as the North had said, on February 10th, I think it was, that they weren’t going to return to the talks. Everybody then put in a lot of effort and the last six weeks or so has been particularly intensive. We know that the South Koreans had discussions with North Koreans. In fact, I met with the Unification Minister when he was in Washington to discuss that. I saw my Japanese and Russian colleagues at the G8 ministerial in London a few weeks ago. Everyone has been very intensively engaged. So we have every reason to believe that they’ve come back because everybody has told them that it’s really time to come back.
Anyway, the development is probably a good thing, although two points due concern me — firstly that North Korea’s HEU program will reportedly no longer be a topic of discussion, secondly that the “six-party talks” may turn into a bilateral U.S.-North Korea affair. I guess we’ll just have to see how things go.
5 Comments
Daily linklets 11th July
Dan Washburn’s Shanghaiist has gone live. It’s already been churning out great stuff. Could Hong Kongist be far behind? Condi Rice is clearly getting carried away with North Korea’s return to nuclear talks…she’s urging China to talk to Taiwan an…
Interesting that the US has caved into DPRK demands-that is how I see it anyway. I also find it supremely ironic that we now have the DPRK claiming they will work hard towards ensuring that the Korean peninsula is nuclear weapons-thanks a lot-give us the disease and then the cure-smooth. I also find the extent to which the Bush administration are spinning this in a completely opposite direction-focused on making them look as strong and diplomatically capable as possible by omitting what they have agreed to in exchange for the North Koreans returning to the bargaining table. I find it troubling that it sounds like there is at least the possibility that NK and the US will end up in two part talks. Ignoring the HEU project is very troubling because it means that the US is selling out for a failure.
The only thing I want to know is if the US agrees to officially recognize the sovereignty of the DPRK, does that mean that US citizens will be able to regularly visit the workers paradise as tourists?
There is no evidence elsewhere that the US has given up on the HEU, which is not logical to expect. Treat Korean media with high suspicion.
I hate to say this but this whole exercise is doomed to failure. NK already has everything it needs — record levels of trade, generous subsidies, tacit approval of its human rights violations by not allowing neighboring countries to give safe haven to its political refugees….. What more could it want?
Knickerbocker is correct, as far as any real significant change or improvement for NK and the region it is a failure. As far as KJI is concerned, it is a victory. Consider this: he can claim to have stared down the US and made them bow to his demands-not a feat even the closest of American allies can claim very often. On top of that, he gets what he wants in terms of security guarantees, aid, subsidies and investment deals from the South. It is not a complete loss for SK or the US either. Bush will claim that diplomacy has prevailed and that he has been able to drive NK back to the bargaining table and avoid the use of force. SK can also claim political victory in that it has been able to successfully prevent arguably one of the most hawkish administrations in the past 50 years from using force to subdue NK solidifying SK?€™s role as a ?€?balancer?€™ in the region and a keeper of peace. The most troubling thing about it all is that NK seems to be getting what it wants for returning to the bargaining table, not necessarily for agreeing to give up their nuclear program in a verifiable manor, granting free and unfettered access to inspectors or even address human rights issues.