U.S. Officials: “In Short, Negotiation With the North Is a Nightmare,”

Former and current U.S. authorities who had negotiated with North Korea for a long period of time said the above about their negotiations with the North.

A former U.S. ambassador to Korea, Steven Bosworth, said, “In one sentence, negotiation with the North is a nightmare,” and the executive director of the Korean Energy Development Organization (KEDO), Charles Kartman, stated that negotiating with the North is “hard work requiring patience.”

Bosworth, Kartman and the Korean ambassador to the United Nations to-be, Choi Young-jin, had a meeting to discuss their experiences in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the KEDO at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC.

A former ambassador, Bosworth, and Kartman served as the first and second General Director of the KEDO, respectively, established by the Geneva Convention.

Kartman commented that the KEDO is a unique organization in which Korea, Japan, the U.S., and the European Union participated in order to achieve a “confined yet great” goal of nuclear settlement.

To supply crude oil and to establish a light water reactor, the KEDO has contacted North Korea hundreds of times over the last 10 years.

Regarding the possibility of the completion of the light water reactor that is being built in North Korea, Kartman told to reporters that his estimate of the possibility was two points out of 10 points, and that he presumed that the Korean government might give eight points to the possibility after a gathering.

Seung-Ryun Kim srkim@donga.com