hankyoreh

U.S. emissary Stephen Bosworth will be visiting the six-party countries of South Korea, China, Japan and Russia next week. Also, U.S. State Department diplomat Sung Kim will be the new head of the American delegation to the six-party talks. The head of China’s delegation, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Dawei, went to Pyongyang last week to discuss resuming the talks. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear and missile crises are going into full swing.

Most important is the attitude of the United States, since its approach will determine a lot about the overall landscape. The Obama administration has already said it wants a comprehensive approach, one that talks about the North doing away with its nuclear programs, a peace agreement, the normalization of ties between Pyongyang and Washington, and energy and economic aid all at the same time. Bosworth’s swing tour needs to be a time for getting into the specifics of that. The six party principle of “action for action” remains valid, but it would be all too easy for that, as has been the case in the past, to fall into a tiresome wrangling over the details. There must be no instance where the individual interest of countries party to the process hinder the larger framework of comprehensive negotiations.

First will have to be the missile problem. Even if Pyongyang launches a satellite, which is what it says, the negative after effects will still be serious, with potential sanctions and harm being done to the momentum of the six-party process. We would hope that Bosworth would be sure to meet with the Northerners this time around. The North has no reason not to talk if the United States makes itself look ready to. The United States must not let it look like it wants to see North Korea isolated.

Pyongyang, in turn, must not miss the opportunity present in the United States’ wholesale review of its North Korea policy. The nations party to the six-party process are ready to give a serious hearing to the conditions for nuclear abandonment that Pyongyang wants to talk about. If the Obama administration is unable to build a framework for constructive discussion early on, the international community’s perceptions of North Korea are going to grow even colder. What Pyongyang needs to do first and foremost right now is halt its missile launch plans. It is regrettable that Kim Myong-kil, a diplomat at North Korea’s mission to the United Nations, says his country is going to go ahead with the “satellite launch.” It is wrong to be narrowing the scope of mutual trust so early on in the process.

South Korea needs to be proactive in supporting the comprehensive approach and U.S.-North Korean contact. It must absolutely refrain from behavior that harms the momentum if it is not going to do what it can add speed to the pace of U.S.-North Korean dialogue. It would be going backwards, to mistakes of the past, to, like President Kim Young-sam, seek to make improved inter-Korean relations a condition for progress in U.S.-North Korean relations. It is for the most part the responsibility of the authorities of North and South Korea to resolve the problems of their relationship.

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