U.S. Should Negotiate Directly with NK

Democratic candidates for the U.S. Presidential primary race criticized George W. Bush for not leading the six-way talks.

Four candidates including Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John Edwards, urged Bush administration to do direct negotiations with North Korea at the last time TV debate before Super Tuesday sponsored by CBS.

The candidates were asked, “You have unequivocal information about North Korea’s nuclear weapons and that they are real and present threats to neighboring countries. Would you move with military power?” And the answers were as follows:

▽Sen. Kerry=It is important to know that between China, Japan, Korea and our own interests and North Korea’s interests, there is a deal to be struck. Bush administration did not follow up on the extraordinary work of William Perry and Bill Clinton.

This administration made this world less safe because they were unwilling to continue the dialogue. If I am President of the United States, I will immediately go back to the dialogue and I believe we can avoid the situation where we have to use military power.

And the progress in the recent six-way talks was minimal, slow and it was begrudging. The delegation was not doing direct, head-to-head negotiations. I will put every issue of the peninsula on the negotiating table, not just nuclear issue but also the economy, the human rights and the deployment of forces.

▽Sen. Edwards= I would never take that option, using military power, off the table. But first of all, the starting place should be the six-way talks. Many countries including Russia are involved in the discussions and we need their cooperation.

But the problem is that we are not leading the discussions. We are sitting in the background. South Korea and other countries are making proposals.

The reality is that this is a serious threat. Now we’re in a crisis and why don’t we seriously lead this discussion? We need to have the ability to verify if North Korea is stopping its nuclear program. And we need to be willing to give something in return.

Soon-Taek Kwon maypole@donga.com