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The six-party nuclear talks open in Beijing on Thursday. Ahead of this round of talks, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korea¡¯s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan held three days of talks in Berlin in January and a working-level Banco Delta Asia meeting took place in late January to resolve the frozen North Korean assets held by the Macau-based bank. During those meetings, North Korea and the U.S. reportedly reached a significant level of understanding, raising hopes of progress during the latest round of six-party nuclear talks. The focus is on whether North Korea will take the initial steps to dismantling its nuclear program and whether the other five countries involved in the talks will provide concrete, corresponding measures.
The United States is approaching the problem seeking to freeze North Korea¡¯s nuclear program, while resolving the problem from that point. As a first step, if North Korea halts operations of the 5 MW reactor in Yongbyon and promise to open its nuclear facilities to international inspection, the other five countries will offer rewards.
This is a repeat of the Geneva Agreement of 1994. This is not a complete and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea¡¯s nuclear program as stipulated in the September 2005 statement of principles. Sewing up the North Korean nuclear crisis simply by offering energy aid after a nuclear freeze is like turning an acute illness into a chronic illness. North Korea may refuse to deal with the inherent problems involving its nuclear program after it receives energy aid. And North Korea will behave as a recognized, nuclear-capable state.
Already, the South Korean government is getting excited over the prospect of resuming rice shipments to North Korea. Baik Jong-chun, chief of national security at the presidential office, said if there is a certain level of progress during the six-party talks, it would be possible to discuss the resumption of humanitarian shipments of rice and fertilizer to North Korea. This comment means a resumption of aid to North Korea is possible if North Korea agrees to a nuclear freeze.
Over the last four years, the Roh Moo-hyun administration has been unable to issue a strong statement to North Korea, simply going when the North says ¡°go¡± and stopping when it says ¡°stop.¡± The South Korean government has been stuck in the middle, being extremely careful not to anger either North Korea or the United States. South Korea has been taking all of the blame for the North Korean nuclear crisis, without taking the initiative to find a solution.
If North Korea promises only to freeze its nuclear program at the present level and if South Korea lauds that as a major achievement, the South will only be contracting a chronic disease called the North Korean nuclear dilemma, and after pouring an astronomical amount of taxpayer money into North Korea.
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