North Korea Seems Determined to Carry Out Peace Deal

For the first time in history, North Korea and the United States will begin working group talks aimed at normalizing their diplomatic ties in New York. The first official bilateral talks between the two countries since the second North Korean nuclear crisis emerged in October 2002 will be held for two days until March 6, with Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan leading the North Korean delegation and Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill as the U.S. chief negotiator.

The seven-member North Korean delegation had a nine-hour-long closed-door discussion session with some North Korean experts, including the nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker, and Shin Ki-wook, who is the director of Shorenstein APARC at Stanford University, on March 1 in San Francisco.

At the session, the North Korean chief negotiator made it clear that the North had an intention to renounce its nuclear program if its diplomatic relationship with the U.S. is normalized, but also indirectly emphasized the nuclear program and the negotiations on the (already produced) nuclear weapons and materials, according to U.S. administration sources.

That is a world away from the basic approach of the U.S., which believes that the nuclear program to be dismantled should include produced nuclear weapons and materials, and the highly enriched uranium program as well. In this regard, experts forecast that such a difference will cause a problem as the two countries began move forward in the talks.

Kim Kye Gwan also had a 50-minute-long bilateral meeting with his South Korean counterpart at the six-party talks, Chun Young-woo, on March 3 in New York, to discuss how to handle working-group sessions based on the agreement reached on February 13 in Beijing.

Chun told reporters after the meeting, “It seems that there is no doubt North Korea is willing to carry out the initial steps (the shutting down and disabling of its nuclear facility in Yongbyon and resumption of an inspection by the IAEA).”

Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said in a luncheon speech on March 2 in Washington, “It is time to take a bold strategy regarding the North Korean nuclear issue,” adding, “Political and economic investments as well diplomatic efforts are needed to encourage the North to fully carry out the September joint statement.” But Song did not elaborate on the bold strategy he mentioned.

kong@donga.com srkim@donga.com