At the high-level meeting held in Seoul on Saturday between Korea, the United States, and Japan, officials called on North Korea to return to the six-party talks without further delay and agreed that there could be serious discussion about all the issues of interest to the North at the talks. Deputy foreign minister Song Min Soon let it look like there had been some progress about plans for having the North return to the table, saying there had been discussion about concrete methods that he would not disclose.
The reason the day's meeting was of special interest is that it was a time for the three countries to coordinate a common response having seen the results of the visit to Pyongyang by Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Community Party's international liaison department. It was also the first time the three countries' new lead negotiators had met together, letting people have a sense of what directions the negotiations will take. That being the case it was somewhat natural that they reaffirmed the principle of resolving the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully and diplomatically through the six-party process.
Take a closer look, however, and you get the feeling that there remain unresolved, subtle differences between the three. Korea does not want to upset the North, and the US, which holds the keys to the issue, continues to maintain a hard-line position, showing no clear change of attitude. Recently Japan has been taking an even more hard-line approach than the US as it seeks to apply pressure on the North because of public anger over getting the "wrong bones" in the kidnapping issue.
The dominant view is that the conservative attitude shown by the representatives of the three nations is nowhere close to what the North would have expected, having come at a time when National Defence Commission Chairman Kim Jong Il called for a "maturation of conditions for six-party talks" and "reliable good-faith and action from the US." North Korea doubts the potential for talks that promise nothing more than discussion about various issues if the parties arrive at the table with nothing concrete to work with, and Saturday's meeting between Korea, the US, and Japan will not wash away those fundamental doubts. This is leading to pessimistic predictions that the tug of war about opening the next round of talks will continue for some time. Each of the three countries, but particularly the US, needs to demonstrate a more profoundly changed attitude.
The Hankyoreh, 28 February 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
6-Party Talks Preparation Session Disappointing |
