North Korea Saturday said it is prepared to drop its insistence that it would only talk with the United States in a bilateral meeting, according to a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman (see GSN, April 11).

“If the U.S. is ready to make a bold switchover in its Korea policy for a settlement of the nuclear issue, the D.P.R.K. will not stick to any particular dialogue format,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman said, however, that the issue is one that must be settled between the United States and North Korea.

“The outcome of the meeting of the [U.N. Security Council] held on April 9 clearly indicated that the nuclear issue is a matter to be settled between the D.P.R.K. and the U.S.,” according to the spokesman.  “The U.S. asserts a ‘multilateral framework’ to be participated in by countries around the D.P.R.K. but their Korea policy and stand of desiring a peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue are clear by and large.  What matters is the U.S.,” he added.

While the spokesman said that Pyongyang would not insist on a specific format for dialogue, he still called for “direct talks” with Washington (Korean Central News Agency, April 12).

North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, however, yesterday criticized the United States and said the Iraq war “launched by the U.S. imperialists” had “put the world peace and stability in a great peril.”

 “The U.S. is now keen to ignite another Korean war after concluding the Iraqi war,” the newspaper said (Korean Central News Agency, April 13).

The conflict in Iraq, however, may have been the impetus for Pyongyang to ease its stance on bilateral negotiations, the Associated Press reported.

“North Korea’s softening position seems to have mainly come because it wasn’t in an advantageous position internationally,” said Ra Jong-il, South Korea’s top security adviser.

“This war on Iraq seems to have become a significant opportunity in deciding the landscape of international politics,” Ra added (Soo-Jeong Lee, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, April 14).

U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday that U.S. success in the Iraq conflict led to the North Korean shift.

“I think that people have got to know that we are serious about stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction and that each situation requires a different response,” Bush said.  “But we are making good progress in North Korea,” he added (Mike Allen, Washington Post, April 14).

After U.S. successes in Iraq, North Korea could choose to hasten efforts to develop nuclear weapons or it could seek a peaceful solution to the Korean crisis, the Financial Times reported.

“Hopefully, this statement means they have chosen the sensible option,” a diplomat said (Andrew Ward, Financial Times, April 13).

The U.S. State Department acknowledged the North Korean statement.

“We noted the statement with interest,” State Department spokeswoman Amanda Batt said Saturday, adding that “we expect to follow up through appropriate diplomatic channels” (Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, April 13).

Bush administration officials were more forthright with their excitement over the latest development in the nuclear crisis.

“It looks like President Bush was smarter than everyone said he was,” a senior administration official said (Doug Struck, Washington Post, April 13).

The new development represents “something of a vindication for the administration,” according to Robert Gallucci, the chief negotiator of the 1994 Agreed Framework to freeze North Korean nuclear development.  North Korea’s decision, however, might have come after Chinese and Russian pressure on Pyongyang, Gallucci said (Allen, Washington Post).

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