North Korea’s decision to return to six-party nuclear talks is a welcome relief, though previous diplomatic efforts have failed to slow the communist country’s nuclear weapons development.
Just three weeks ago, North Korea jolted its Asian neighbors by conducting an underground nuclear weapons test. China’s president dispatched a top official to Pyongyang to express the displeasure of North Korea’s only significant ally.
The result, apparently, is that diplomats will have another chance to dissuade Kim Jong Il from his perilous nuclear course.
North Korea left the table a year ago and accelerated its program.
The United States and other parties to the talks should take advantage of this opening to seek better relations with Kim. The hope is to persuade him to roll back North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and to win assurances that it will not use or sell weapons technology.
The goal should be nuclear non-proliferation. We would hate to see Japan or South Korea start building nuclear arsenals because of a perceived threat from Kim.
China is a longtime ally and trading partner of North Korea and should take the lead in convincing Kim to cooperate. But South Korea also needs to play a strong role. (China and South Korea have been reluctant to enforce sanctions against North Korea for fear that the impoverished nation could collapse, sending millions of refugees surging across their borders).
Since North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, six- party talks were held in August 2003, February 2004 and June 2004. Three more meetings last year, between July and November, yielded little.
We may never know whether China used a carrot or a stick in prodding North Korea to cooperate. Beijing denies withholding oil as punishment, but trade statistics show China sold no oil to North Korea in September.
North Korea is said to be feeling the pain of U.S. financial sanctions. Those sanctions, imposed more than a year ago, restricted money to the government by freezing North Korean assets held in a Macau bank. The U.S. has threatened to expand the sanctions to other banks. North Korean officials want these sanctions to be discussed during the six-party talks.
President Bush said that United Nations sanctions imposed after the Oct. 9 nuclear test should remain. The sanctions include a ban on the sale of major arms to Pyongyang, inspection of cargo entering and leaving the country, travel bans on government officials and restrictions on the sale of luxury goods to the regime.
Having secured North Korea’s participation in new talks, it is critical that the parties work to break the current stalemate and bring North Korea back from the brink.
