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U.S. Officials Cautiously Assess North Korean Willingness to Resume Nuclear Negotiations
The U.S. State Department yesterday confirmed accounts of U.S.-North Korean contact in New York Monday and that the North Korean side had expressed a willingness to resume negotiations at some unspecified date, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, June 7). “The ball is in the North Koreans’ court to provide a time when they will return to the table and to actually return to the table to engage in a constructive manner,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. The body language by the North Koreans at Monday’s meeting, according to one U.S. official familiar with details of the interaction, was “very good.” However, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the Bush administration’s point man on the standoff with Pyongyang, said yesterday that it was too soon to say talks would resume. “They did not give us a date. Until we get a date and get everyone sitting at the table, we do not have a process,” said Hill. Asian officials, however, were openly optimistic. “I think it will be pretty soon, in the next few weeks,” Chinese Ambassador to the U.N. Wang Guangya said yesterday. “I understand that it will be [in] Beijing.” U.S. officials are still awaiting a North Korean response to a U.S. proposal put forth at the last session of six-party talks a year ago, according to the Post. No updates would be made to that proposal before a new round of talks, U.S. officials said. They added, however, that Washington was willing to be flexible if North Korea were to make a legitimate counteroffer (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, June 8). During Monday’s meeting, the North Korean officials told their U.S. counterparts that Pyongyang insists on being treated as a nuclear power, the Asahi Shimbun reported today. “We deserve treatment as a nuclear nation,” Asahi quoted North Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Pak Gil Yon as having said. It is the first time Pyongyang has made a direct claim of nuclear power status to Washington, according to Asahi (Kyodo/Yahoo!News, June 8). North Korea’s suggestion that it might be willing to resume talks could be a stalling tactic, some analysts said today. “This is probably a diplomatic tactic to stall while hanging on to its nuclear programs,” said Lee Dong-bok, senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Reuters. “North Korea basically is not going to give up its nuclear programs, so it will come to the talks with demands not acceptable to the United States,” he said. Don Oberdorfer, an expert on North Korea at John Hopkins University, said the threat of the U.N. Security Council taking up the issue may have pushed North Korea to make the statement. “The North Koreans may have decided that, in order for the United States not to move to what is called in Washington ‘other options,’ it is a good time to suggest that they are not opposed in principle to returning to the talks,” he said (Reuters/New York Times, June 8).
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