North Korea’s decision to rejoin six- nation talks aimed at eliminating its nuclear arsenal is a critical first step to achieving a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
The next step is substantive discussions that actually will lead to North Korea scrapping its nuclear weapons. The new round of talks gets underway later this month in China. The other nations involved in the talks, besides China, are Russia, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
We hope North Korea takes the new talks seriously, unlike the last three meetings in 2003 and 2004, when virtually no progress was made. The U.S. is not interested in more empty gestures from North Korea. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “It is not the goal of the talks to have talks. The goal of the talks is to have progress.”
North Korea has boycotted disarmament talks for a year. In February, North Korea sent jitters throughout Asia and elsewhere when it announced it had nuclear weapons but would never return to the negotiating table because of the Bush administration’s “hostile policy,” including inflammatory statements made by Rice. During her confirmation hearings in January, Rice referred to North Korea as “an outpost of tyranny.”
Since then, international efforts have been underway to coax North Korea back to the negotiating table, and Rice has wisely toned down her rhetoric. Last weekend, she told reporters that the U.S. respected North Korea’s sovereignty and had no plans to attack the country.
North Korea started showing signs in recent weeks that it was interested in ending the boycott after a “tremendous flurry of diplomatic activity,” according to Rice. But some observers believe the sharp turnabout is due to North Korea’s economic woes and promises of aid from negotiating countries. The U.S. recently announced a 50,000-ton food donation for North Korea. The Bush administration said it was a humanitarian gesture unrelated to nuclear diplomacy.
South Korea has prepared a significant aid proposal for its communist neighbor if it returns to the bargaining table. China, too, is apparently prepared to resume investing heavily in North Korea, and Japan is talking about extending energy assistance.
For now, the negotiating partners seem focused more on rewards than sanctions to get North Korea back to the bargaining table. The carrot approach is worth a try as long as North Korea responds by taking the talks seriously and showing verifiable signs that it is dismantling its nuclear weapons.
