hankyoreh

Nuclear negotiators Kim Kye-gwan, of North Korea, and Christopher Hill, of the United States, meet in Geneva today to find a way to get the impasse over Pyongyang declaring its nuclear capabilities out of the way. Those who are part of these negotiations are feeling considerable tension, because if they are unable to find points of compromise this time around as well, it will be hard to move to the disablement step of the process during the Bush administration’s final term. Depending on how things go, the very framework of the six-party talks could be at risk.

North Korea and the United States will have to make some realistic decisions, and quickly, if these talks are going to accomplish something. For starters, Pyongyang needs to explain, in good faith, about the question of its uranium enrichment program, or UEP, and accusations of cooperation with other nations on nuclear technology. One takes note of the suggestion that these issues be dealt with through “confidential minutes,” as this would be a way to actually look at the suspicious questions without forcing conflicting claims on each other and complicating things in the process. It would be a compromise that takes both sides into consideration. North Korea, for its part, needs to respond proactively to the issues at hand, because there just is not any country that would be satisfied with the explanations it has given so far.

The United States needs to put removing Pyongyang from its lists of state sponsors of terror and countries to which it applies the Trading With the Enemy Act on the table as commensurate measures. Hard-liners in the United States say such measures should not be taken before all the North Korean nuclear questions are out of the way. That, however, goes against the principle of simultaneous action, which forms the basis of the six-party talks. Also, if Washington were to announce a timetable for those measures, it would have the effect of promoting basic confidence and pressuring the North to have real verification.

While Pyongyang and Washington are reaching a moment of truth, the South Korean government is sitting back and relaxing. In the first Ministry of Foreign Affairs report showing what the tone of the new administration’s foreign policy is going to be for the year ahead, President Lee Myung-bak and ministry officials talked only about natural resources during their discussion session. The North Korean nuclear issue was not even mentioned. The six-party talks and other peninsular issues were pushed to the back burner in the ministry’s stated foreign policy goals for 2008. That kind of attitude is only going to negatively affect negotiations between the United States and North Korea.

The fruits of the six-party talks are going to fall on the country that works the hardest. If talks between the United States and North Korea fail to accomplish something and the six-party process loses momentum, it is those of us in South Korea who are going to suffer the greatest consequences. President Lee Myung-bak must not surrender Seoul’s position of leadership on issues facing the Korean Peninsula for wanting to be different from President Roh-Moo-hyun.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]