hankyoreh

North Korea and the United States reportedly plan to discuss possible ways to implement disablement of North Korea’s nuclear programs within the year and, in exchange, the U.S. plans to provide compensation to the communist nation. These steps were agreed upon at the 2nd round of North Korea-U.S. working-level talks to normalize relations between the two countries, and will be discussed once again at the next round of six-party talks to be held in Beijing in the middle of this month.

In connection with the results of the North Korea-U.S. meeting, which ended in Geneva on Sunday, a high-ranking government official said on the following day, “These steps should be seen as part of a bigger framework. The details will be discussed in the next round of six-party talks.”

Regarding North Korea’s disabling its nuclear facilities by the end of the year and making a full declaration of all of its nuclear programs, and the economic and political compensation provided by the United States in return, the official said, “As far as I know, the two sides have consented to perform the agreement concurrently and ‘in an understandable way.’ Unfulfilled parts remain related to the agreement.”

A high-ranking U.S. diplomat said that the two sides were unable to reach consensus on the details of the agreement.

An official in Seoul said, “It seems that Pyongyang is determined not to take time until disabling its nuclear facilities. In relation to declaration of North Korea’s nuclear programs, the uranium enrichment program is the most important issue. How sincerely the North is about declaring its nuclear programs will be a token of its political will and determination for its denuclearization.”

It is well-known that discussion among the nations participating in the six-party process, which include both Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, will be focused on a way to disable the North’s nuclear facilities step by step during the next round of six-party talks. A high-ranking government official stressed, however, that any corresponding measures would depend upon the level of nuclear disablement accomplished by North Korea.

With the North Korea-U.S. agreement in Geneva, the North Korean nuclear issue has passed a difficult barrier and is moving toward disablement, which is the step before dismantlement, of its nuclear programs as agreed upon in July of last year. The agreement, however, still lacks substantial content.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said only that the two nations had “agreed” on disabling the North’s nuclear facilities within the year. North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-kwan, meanwhile, remarked that Pyongyang was expressing its clear will about the disablement of its nuclear facilities - without ever saying the word “agreement.”
A government official said, “The ball was thrown into the court of the six-party talks.” He added, “However, there may be a number of difficulties ahead.”

This would all seem to allow one to interpret recent developments and say that a bigger picture for the Korean peninsula, one that is about more than disabling Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities, is in motion. In July, Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said that two wheels would be in motion: the peninsula’s denuclearization and a peace regime. Just as Song says, the South Korea-U.S. summit, that comes immediately ahead of the APEC summit in Sydney, and the inter-Korean summit being held Oct. 2-4 are both looking toward the big picture of a peace regime. The point of departure for everything is the peninsula’s denuclearization.

It appears that from here on in the six-party talks will move in accordance to the blueprints revealed by chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill, including nuclear disablement by the end of the year. At a press conference on Aug. 29, Hill said that discussion on a peace process for the Korean peninsula and a peace and security regime for the Northeast Asian region would begin at the end of this year or early 2008, following the full round of six-party talks scheduled for the middle of this month and the six-party nations’ foreign ministers’ meeting. Discussion of these two issues has now gone beyond the assistant secretary level of the six-party format.

The foreign ministers’ meeting, expected to take place in mid-October, will play an important role in setting the framework for the discussion. The inter-Korean summit set for Oct. 2-4 needs to be positioned as a part of this.

Sejong Institute director [and Unification Minister under Kim Dae-jung at the time of the first inter-Korean summit] Lim Dong-won noted that peace does not necessarily mean moving in the direction of reunification, so the leaders of North and South Korea need agree on the principle that a peace regime for the peninsula needs to be a peace aimed at reunification that is led by the two Koreas.