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North Korea I: Six-Party Talks Might Not Be Unified Against Pyongyang The four countries that join the planned multilateral talks with the United States and North Korea might not line up squarely on Washington’s side, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Aug. 4). The talks are scheduled to include North Korea, the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia. “The U.S. is expecting it to be five pressuring one; will it?” said Ralph Cossa, head of the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. “Certainly everyone agrees that North Korea has to give up its nuclear weapons but most also want the U.S. to offer some carrots. So there will be pressure on both North Korea and the U.S. at the meeting,” he added (Jane Macartney, Reuters/Yahoo!News, Aug. 5). North Korea, meanwhile, stopped its radio and megaphone propaganda campaign across the demilitarized zone this weekend. Pyongyang is attempting to win friends before the talks begin, the New York Times reported. “Ultimately the North Korean game is to split South Korea and other countries away from the United States,” said Marcus Noland, a Korea expert at the Institute for International Economics in Washington. “Ultimately the North Koreans want their charm campaign to soften up South Korea and other countries and make them less likely to back the United States in any kind of coercive diplomacy,” he added (James Brooke, New York Times, Aug. 5). The White House, meanwhile, has defended last week’s speech by Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton. Bolton called North Korean leader Kim Jong Il a “tyrannical dictator” (see GSN, July 31). “He was speaking for the administration,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday, “and I think his remarks last week reiterated things we’ve previously said” (CNN.com, Aug. 4). State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the comments had been cleared by administration officials before the speech was given. North Korea said it would not negotiate with Bolton in the future, but Reeker said that the U.S. delegation to the talks would be selected by U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell (State Department transcript, Aug. 4).
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