Pressure Must Be Kept on North Korea, Japan Says

Nations participating in the six-party talks must maintain pressure on North Korea to resolve the nuclear crisis, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso told Bloomberg last month (see GSN, Jan. 3).

His comments came several days after the most recent round of meetings in Beijing ended without signs of progress in disarming Pyongyang.

“We’re dealing with a game of chicken here.  As they begin to show signs of fatigue, we’ll eventually have to talk,” Aso said.  “That’s what diplomacy is all about.”

“China believed that progress could be made,” he added.  “The talks didn’t yield much.  People are now telling China:  ‘This isn’t what we expected.’  We shouldn’t be holding talks that aren’t yielding results.”

An official in Beijing disputed Aso opinion on the value of the negotiations.

“We don’t believe the last round of talks was a failure,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.  “Everyone knows the North Korean issue is very complex.  Progress can only be made when major partners work together to make progress.  That said, China will continue to work hard to help push for progress.  We will not give up.”

Trade and economic sanctions against North Korea are “delivering results,” Aso said.  Pyongyang used the talks last month to press for lifting of U.S. actions that led a bank to freeze $24 million of the regime’s assets.

“The fact that the North is so adamant about those sanctions show they’ve been effective,” Aso said.

Japan and the United Nations also set sanctions on North Korea following its Oct. 9 nuclear test (Brinsley/Yamamura, Bloomberg, Jan. 4).

No date or place has been set for further talks between Pyongyang and Washington on the U.S. sanctions, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.

Officials from the two capitals met last month on the sidelines of the six-party talks, and expected to gather again Jan. 22 in New York.  North Korea has since ruled out the city as the location for the meeting.

“There hasn’t been a firm date and place nailed down yet,” said U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise.

It will take time to resolve the matter, Millerwise said, giving no hint that Washington means to lift the sanctions (P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, Jan. 3).

Implementation of the U.N. sanctions against North Korea has begun in Singapore, AFP reported.  Singapore is now blocking shipments to the Stalinist state of missiles, nuclear technology and heavy military equipment, along with luxury items such as cigars, fur coats, wine and spirits (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 4).

Meanwhile, the recent death of North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun is not expected to alter the regime’s stand in the nuclear negotiations, the Yonhap News Agency reported today.

Command of Pyongyang’s foreign affairs began with leader Kim Jong Il and continued directly to Vice Foreign Minister Kang Suk Ju and then on to top nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan, according to one expert.

“Usually the top posts of government organizations in North Korea are filled by senior veterans, and the next in line of power are usually the ones with actual power,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea studies professor at Dongguk University in Seoul.

“This line will remain unchanged regardless of who becomes the next foreign minister,” he said.  “There will not be any major changes to the course of basis of the North’s foreign policy” (Yonhap News Agency/Yahoo!News, Jan. 4).

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