Filed under: North Korea — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on March 23, 2007 @ 1:00 pm CET
Great. The Washington Post reports that “the six-nation talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program broke down in Beijing on Thursday as top envoys from Russia and North Korea flew home and the Chinese hosts called a recess.”
North Korea’s delegates decided to leave because of $25 million in North Korean funds that has been frozen by the U.S.
“The breakdown raises the question as to whether the North is really serious about denuclearization,” said Peter M. Beck, a Seoul-based analyst with the International Crisis Group. “It’s clearly not a question of if they’re getting their money back or how much of it.”
[…]
“It is embarrassing,” said David Asher, who headed a task force examining North Korean criminal activities during President Bush’s first term. He likened the U.S. move to giving money back to a thief and said it would simply encourage North Korea to test the limits. “We are trying to pay them to act good,” he said. “But they think they are getting paid because they acted bad.”
Michael J. Green, formerly the top Asia specialist at the White House, approves of the nuclear agreement reached in February but warned, “We have to be careful not to expend all of our chits at this stage and not let North Korea regain the initiative.”
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei remained… determined:
“No one can get off the boat. We have to work together to make progress.”
The problem is, of course, that North Korea doesn’t seem very willing to “work together”.
The U.S. should be incredibly constistent in these talks. Work towards a clear goal, reward good behavior, but don’t give in to North Korea’s idiotic behavior / demands. The Asian country’s leaders are sometimes truly behaving like 5 year olds.
Perhaps they should be treated as such.
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