U.S. delays bilateral dialogue with N.Korea

Posted on : 2009-10-02 09:54 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Among the strategic considerations, analysts speculate that reasons for delay could center on a lack of agreement on the agenda among the other six-party talks members
 the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration is giving repeated indications of a cautious approach towards direct dialogue with North Korea, and has stated that the final decision to hold bilateral talks has not yet been made. Observers are calling this somewhat unexpected in light of a statement made by Philip Crowley, assistant secretary for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs, in a Sept. 11 briefing. The statement seemed to indicate that the formal announcement of a bilateral dialogue would be made after the United Nations General Assembly session scheduled for Sept. 21 to Sept. 23 concluded.

In fact, it has been reported that during that session, the South Korean and Japanese government communicated to the U.S. that they welcomed, or else did not object to, a bilateral North Korea-U.S. dialogue. The U.S. government also announced that South Korea, China, Japan and Russia supported the U.S. approaching a bilateral dialogue with North Korea.

However, in answering the question of whether such dialogue will actually take place, U.S. authorities are less forthcoming. In a public briefing, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell said that “no final decision” has been made concerning the dialogue. Crowley echoed this in a meeting with reporters Wednesday when he said that there had been a proposal from North Korea for bilateral dialogue, which the U.S. is still evaluating.

Many analysts are saying that the circumspect approach by the U.S. owes itself primarily to strategic considerations. According to this view, the approach is intended to put the U.S. in an advantageous position in future negotiations by not giving the appearance of rushing into a dialogue with North Korea. “It is correct that the U.S. has virtually decided upon the North Korea-U.S. dialogue, apart from the issue of the timeline,” said a South Korean government official. “However, there appears to be an underlying determination that there is no need to show their cards ahead of discussions,” the official added. Other observers are suggesting that in procedural terms, fine-tuning between related offices in the U.S. has finished, but no definite announcement has been made because Obama has yet to give his final approval.

In an interview with Voice of America, former U.S. State Department Director of Policy Planning Mitchell Reiss also raised the possibility that the announcement is being postponed because agreement over the content has not yet been reached among the five nations involved. In the interview, Reiss said that there could be differences of opinion among authorities over what message to send to North Korea.

Some analysts are also speculating that the U.S. may have set North Korea’s declaration of a return to the six-party talks as a condition for bilateral dialogue, and that it is now waiting for North Korea’s response. However, South Korean and U.S. authorities have stated, at least on the surface, that no preconditions were set for dialogue.

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