hankyoreh

Austria

Now that the US has reached a nuclear deal with Iran, the next question is whether it will initiate talks about North Korea’s nuclear program.

Just before his inauguration in 2009, US President Barack Obama indicated his willingness to shake hands with the enemy, mentioning the three countries of North Korea, Iran, and Cuba.

Since the US is moving toward normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba, reaching an agreement last month to set up embassies, the only one left is North Korea.

But for the moment, diplomats in Washington D.C., are largely pessimistic about the chances of talks with North Korea. For one thing, the US has reached agreements with North Korea on several occasions only for those agreements to fall apart, leading it to adopt a very cautious attitude about negotiations with the North.

“Before coming to the table, the US wants to confirm that North Korea means business. This is different from Iran, which was joining negotiations for the first time,” a diplomatic source said.

With about one and a half years left in his final term in office, Obama probably will not choose to jump into new talks with North Korea, which would have an uncertain outcome. Instead, he is expected to direct his attention to effectively implementing the agreement with Iran and wrapping up talks to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba. This alone would count as a substantial diplomatic legacy for his presidency.

Furthermore, an idea being tossed around in the Washington diplomatic community for several months is that the next objective for the Obama administration - after reaching a deal with Iran - will be to make clear progress in beating back the Islamic State (IS), the armed group of Sunni extremists in the Middle East. While the origins of IS go back to the previous administration, Obama is facing criticism that neglect by his administration has exacerbated the problem.

To be sure, there are also indications that the Obama administration would not reject nuclear talks if North Korea expressed strong interest in them.

“If North Korea proposes talks, Obama probably won’t say no. But given the risks of failure, the US doesn’t seem willing to make the first move,” the diplomatic source said.

Since strong concern is being voiced in Washington about the growing sophistication of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, there is always the possibility that the Obama administration could attempt some exploratory talks.

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

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