Johns Hopkins University academic Don Oberdorfer was discussing the upcoming Korea-U.S. summit during a debate entitled, "North Korean Nuclear Issue and the Future of Six-Party Talks," hosted by the Korea Press Foundation at the Seoul Press Center. He said he hoped the summit would become an opportunity for the two sides to carefully listen to one another.

Oberdorfer read North Korea's recent approaches to U.S. officials through the so-called "New York channel" - Pyongyang’s UN mission - as an attempt to preempt further hardline measures from Washington. North Korea indicated it would return to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks to see how the U.S. will respond, he said.

But the academic said it was highly likely North Korea would wangle recognition as a nuclear state in the same way Pakistan had done. Oberdorfer claimed North Korea told U.S. diplomats unofficially that Washington might not like this at first but there was nothing it could do about it - an assessment he said was not unreasonable if things continue the way they are and the nuclear dispute is not resolved soon.

Turning to President Roh Moo-hyun's ambition for Korea to play a balancing role in Northeast Asia, Oberdorfer said the initiative was vague and bewildering, and since it was easily misunderstood may have unintentionally caused needless debate, he said.

(englishnews@chosun.com )