N.Korea and U.S. continue to negotiate timetable for bilateral talks

Posted on : 2009-11-05 12:41 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
While N.Korea steps up pressure on U.S. by reprocessing 8000 spent fuel rods, experts anticipate an agreement prior to U.S. President Barack Obama’s tour to Asia
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Conflicting signals and assessments have been emerging regarding the results of contacts last month in New York between Ri Gun, the director of U.S. affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, and Sung Kim, U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks. It appears that prior to full-scale North Korea-U.S. dialogue involving U.S. special envoy for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth, North Korea and the U.S. are engaging in a last-minute, under-the-table and heated war of nerves.

Ri reported beneficial talks with U.S. figures in New York on Oct. 30 (local time). Prior to Ri’s return home, however, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) on Nov. 2 that if the U.S. remained unready to sit down and talk with North Korea, North Korea could find its own path, pressuring Washington.

In response, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a regular briefing on Nov. 2 (local time) that both countries had very beneficial talks, positively evaluating the unofficial contacts. North Korea raised the level of pressure, however, declaring in a KCNA report on Nov. 3 that it had completed reprocessing 8000 spent fuel rods, and that noteworthy successes had been made in extracting weapons-grade plutonium. Meanwhile, U.S. foreign policy magazine Foreign Policy reported on the same day that quiet progress had been made, and North Korea and the U.S. had agreed to hold official talks twice before North Korea returns to multilateral talks.

The assessments of results of the unofficial contacts may seem at odds, but several trends are apparent. First, while fine-tuning details may not be completed ahead of official North Korea-U.S. talks, progress was made. Observers are saying, as reported in U.S. magazine Foreign Policy, North Korea and the U.S. seemed to reach an agreement regarding the meeting between Bosworth and Kang Seok-ju, North Korea's First Vice-Foreign Minister. It also seems plausible that the two sides agreed to hold two rounds of official talks. However, it would seemingly be difficult to reach agreements in even one round of bilateral talks, and more than two rounds of bilateral talks would be burdensome for Washington. This is because bilateral talks could be viewed as ignoring the other participants in the six-party talks.

 

Second, it seems that while the U.S. would like to begin official talks after it is certain of the results, North Korea would like to move up the timing of the start of talks as much as possible. The U.S. may have demanded sincere denuclearization measures prior to the start of official talks, while North Korea may have expressed reluctance.

Third, because a long period of time has passed since North Korea invited Bosworth to Pyongyang, the time is approaching for the U.S. to make a final decision. There are some who predict that this could happen prior to U.S. President Barack Obama’s tour to Asia on Nov. 11.

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

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