Cha: 6-Party Framework for NK Nukes Here to Stay

The six-party framework for North Korea’s denuclearization will remain because policymakers of the U.S. administration want to keep the talks as the framework for security cooperation in Northeast Asia, a former White House adviser said yesterday.

Victor Cha, former director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council and the Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said this in an interview with The Dong-A Ilbo in Washington.

He said change in the six-party talks is a hypothesis with a remote possibility, calling it “an adventure that will do more harm than good.”

Also director of the Asian studies program at Georgetown University, Cha said new high-ranking officials in North Korea instead of Vice Foreign Ministers Kang Sok Ju and Kim Kye Gwan are needed for the ultimate denuclearization of the communist country.

He said officials at the powerful National Defense Commission or close confidents to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will be well-qualified persons.

Dong-A: The United States and North Korea are struggling to gain the upper hand.

Cha: Choosing between bilateral and multilateral talks is meaningless. Once multilateral talks are held, bilateral contact between the U.S. and North Korea will be secured. North Korea knows this well. The consistent strategy of Pyongyang is to maximize compensation for denuclearization by splitting the negotiation processes. But separate from such processes, Pyongyang has built up its nuclear capability. The core of the dispute is its determination to abandon nuclear weapons. North Korea, however, has no intention to give up on them.

Dong-A: Some say bilateral contact between the U.S. and North Korea is imminent.

Cha: The United States is in no hurry. It also doesn’t want to start dialogue for its own sake. The Obama administration is well aware of the broad consensus in the United Nations and the international community over nuclear non-proliferation and how time is not on North Korea’s side. Washington is determined not to ease sanctions on Pyongyang if it doesn’t change its behavior.

triplets@donga.com yhchoi65@donga.com