Looks like the six-party talks are in for some rough sailing (Chosun Ilbo, WaPo), with the United States raising the human rights and missile issues and North Korea demanding, among other things, the withdrawal of the U.S. nuclear umbrella from South Korea. I think it’s safe to say at this point that the six-party talks are not going to be a quick and easy thing.
The Chosun report, BTW, suggests that the United States may have broken from a joint proposal previously agreed upon between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo. If true — and I’m not sure if there’s more to this — I’d be inclined to sympathize with South Korea’s frustration.
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Ah the things the North Korea issue will do to Americans who otherwise are pleased enough with Bush. If the Chosun says so, gotta be true, right :-)? It’s the favorite Korean newspaper of some US Republicans here in Korea, after all. Brave of you there, Marmot.
What the above comment realy means is that if the Chosun turns out to be wrong, doubt it a little more from now when it talks about the SK government, too.
The Chosun article says that an South Korean official says that the USA broke from a proposed joint propossal. It is pretty clear that ROK officials must have misunderstood something because the Japanese are bringing up the abduction issue. If two out of three parties to an agreement say something different than the third, my guess is that the odd man out must have misunderstood something.
BTW, the Chosun is no longer my favorite SK paper since they failed to hire my wife.
Ah, sorry The Yangban, you were not a wise choice of examples on my part.
Still, many in the English speaking world are ready to believe the Chosun, and it should be noted that the Chosun rarely actually says anything at all, even in its editorials (using passive voice, etc) and always quotes someone, even when attacking Roh et al.
The Chosun quotes such talk extensively, here, here, and here. (Fortunately at the end of the last one, a foreign ministry official is quoted as saying the US only brought up such issues at keynote time, and that when the talks get to the details he “believes” the US will “exercise more flexibility.”)
Anyway, with at least three whole stories like that there is probably some truth to it. After all, the Chosun (and the rest of them) never actually lies. It just might not be the whole story.
And it would seem to me that if the priority is going to be getting rid of the nukes in order to avoid having to start a war, then bringing up other issues (as much as I’d like to start a war just on the human rights) when you’re getting started on that should indeed be plenty grounds to have your intentions questioned, whatever the US may have agreed with SK and Japan.
If the negotiations are strictly about security issues (nukes, security guarantees, peace treaty and maybe energy aid), then I agree that human rights could be put asside for another day. That is something I supported even in my rantiest posts (You have to read through a long rant to get to the deal part).
However, once you start getting into issues like normalization of relations, development aid and taking lifting sanctions, then human rights go right back on the table. There are limits to what the American public and Congress are willing to give without some movement on human rights.
My guess is that, if there is a deal, the ROK is going to pay most of the bill unless they can get the Norks to address the US and Japan on human rights and the abductees.
Drunk On Domestic Consumption
This isn?€™t good, but its better than a bad agreement. The bad part of the past few days events is not (just) the impasse, but how far apart the purported allies, Seoul, Washington, and Tokyo, are. All three, joined by…
The NORK’s need to get a clue! Do the math KJI: Your people are starving or malnourished and live in darkness after the sun goes down; S. Korea has overweight, well-fed Korean folk waddling down the streets of Itaewon checking their cell phones every 5-7 minutes and do not require flashlights (torches is North Korea’s case) to navigate the streets at night! Give up your nukes, say you’re sorry for being such a selfish moron, and get with the times you old windbag!