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North Korea I: Washington Needs Allies to Ease North Korean Crisis, Task Force Says By David McGlinchey Gaining the support of North Korea’s neighbors, however, will require Washington to first show a genuine commitment to diplomatic negotiations, report says. The report, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, recommends testing Pyongyang’s intentions by offering a temporary nonaggression assurance and foreign aid in exchange for a freeze on nuclear activity. “The U.S. must be perceived as trying to resolve this problem [diplomatically],” said task force co-chairman Morton Abramowitz, a former longtime U.S. diplomat. The report criticizes the Bush administration’s current strategy, which it described as “a policy of isolation, punctuated by occasional, mostly fruitless meetings with the North.” Abramowitz said the White House has indicated it is seeking a diplomatic solution, but “they have not defined what that means.” Pyongyang and Washington held contentious talks in Beijing last month, but no further negotiations have been announced. The report says a diplomatic effort would not be successful without support from regional powers. Washington “must utilize a coalition of allies in the region,” said the task force’s other co-chairman, James Laney, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea. Blockade Abramowitz acknowledged that a diplomatic solution “may not be possible,” and “whether the North Koreans would ever accept it is highly uncertain.” If diplomacy does fail, the United States must take firm steps to seal off North Korea — a move that would not be feasible without the strong support of Pyongyang’s regional neighbors, the report said. The report endorsed a blockade or naval containment of North Korea to prevent the spread of nuclear materials and to pressure Pyongyang into dropping its nuclear ambitions. To seal off North Korea would require the cooperation of allies and “a land blockade from China and Russia,” according to Eric Heginbotham, the task force director and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He added that a blockade “certainly would be highly provocative” and “could not guarantee” that nuclear material was not seeping out of the reclusive communist country. “Plutonium can be very small,” Heginbotham said. High-Level Coordinator Laney said the Bush administration should assign a senior diplomat to develop a unified front with Japan, South Korea, Russia and China. “Full time, I mean at the highest level,” Laney said, adding, “with a coordinator, that strength can be marshaled.” He said North Korea’s neighbors are not happy with Pyongyang’s nuclear development and that discontent should be unified. “This [dissatisfaction] is not something that is going to merge; we have to work at it,” according to Laney.
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