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NEW YORK -- The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday that hardliners within the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush were considering compulsive measures against North Korea like economic sanction or a United Nations Security Council statement condemning Pyongyang. These hardline measures were being considered in preparation for the possibility that the 6-party talks failed to obtain concrete results, or if the talks themselves failed to restart.
The WSJ reported that U.S. hardliners believed the six party talks were not progressing and only giving time to North Korea to develop nuclear weapons. They were loosing patience with the glacial pace of the talks, the paper said.
It said that should there be a failure to find a breakthrough with the six party talks, tensions over whether to offer more carrots to Pyongyang or use the stick were likely to become a pending issue between Washington, South Korea and China. The paper also analyzed that as hardliners in the United States grow stronger, relations with nations in Asia like South Korea and China could grow worse.
The WSJ added that Pyongyang could be satisfied if the U.S. were to participate in delivering heavy oil to North Korea in return for a nuclear freeze, but the Bush administration didn't have the intention to yield.
It quoted a Korean diplomat as saying, however, that the U.S. would increase pressure on North Korea gradually, and he didn't expect such moves to begin until next spring.
(Kim Jae-ho, jaeho@chosun.com )
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