The current round of six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue have been on for a week now, and look as if they will be prolonged. Still, there is active bilateral contact between participating nations leading to better understanding of everyone's intentions and substantial ironing out of differences, making the overall atmosphere better than at any time before. During the previous three rounds of six-party talks it was hard to have real negotiations because the concentration was on keeping to the 4 day, 3 night schedule and everyone went home without producing any results. Comparatively, therefore, the current talks have made considerable progress both in terms of form and content. The delegations from the United States and North Korea have met separately as many as five times over the past week. They are negotiating with a more serious attitude than at any time since the start of the Bush Administration, leading to increased hopes in the process.
Currently the delegations are working on a "joint document," the draft of which was produced by China as the host nation, based on the basic positions of each nation as expressed in their keynote remarks. Reportedly it outlines the concept and scope of "denuclearization" and discusses security guarantees for North Korea, the normalization of relations with Pyongyang and the US and Japan, and plans for promoting economic cooperation. Each issue is a sensitive one on which the North and the US clearly differ, so every last line in the joint document will be very important. Indeed, there has reportedly been intense wrangling over each phrase.
The current talks must produce fruit and create a firm framework for sustainable dialogue, and a joint document must be adopted even if it takes time and even if it is somewhat lacking in content. It will be hard to expect much in the future if as in the first three rounds of talks participating nations just try to get by with a "chairman's statement" that does not have much binding power. The delegations need to be of the mindset that the real negotiations begin from here on in and exert themselves all the more to make the talks successful.
The Hankyoreh, 1 August 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] 'Joint Document' Key to Six-Party Talks |
