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North Korea on Sunday agreed to report all nuclear programs and disable its nuclear facilities by the end of the year. Some experts are saying this was prompted by a key concession on the part of U.S. President George W. Bush to strike the North from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism and lift the Trade with Hostile Nations Act. Pyongyang has linked these two demands with its declaration and disablement of nuclear programs under a Feb. 13 six-nation agreement.
Bush called a press conference on Friday, a day before the breakthrough working-group meetings in Geneva on normalizing Washington-Pyongyang relations. "The question is, can it happen before I am through?¡± he said. ¡±Yes, it can. I hope so." He sent a message to Pyongyang by saying, "I've made my choice." This is a marked change in attitude given his earlier descriptions of North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" or a "rogue state." Political circles in Washington see Bush's latest message as a sign he will favor flexible give-and-take in negotiations with the North -- his message suggests he could accept Pyongyang's demands and even speed up the normalization of ties.
The change is being attributed to the deteriorating situation for the U.S. in Iraq, which means Bush is in dire need of a success story as his tenure nears its end. Despite the ¡°surge¡± of 30,000 American soldiers in Iraq, that is unlikely to happen there. One source said Bush seems to believe that the North Korean nuclear issue is ¡°still a chance to recover his mistake in Iraq to some extent, even if it isn¡¯t such a big deal in the U.S. as it is in South Korea.¡±
Of course, it all depends on whether Pyongyang keeps up its part of the bargain. Plus there is Japan, a key regional partner for the U.S., which has insisted that the North should only be struck from the list of terror sponsors if it addresses the issue of Japanese citizens it abducted in the 1970s and 80s to Tokyo¡¯s satisfaction.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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