North Korean Talks Not Dead
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has rejected claims that talks with North Korea about dismantling its nuclear program are in trouble, saying that they are “by no means dead”:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that North Korea’s actions to reactivate its nuclear plant did not mean an end to six-party nuclear talks but deepened Pyongyang’s isolation.
“By no means,” said Rice when asked whether North Korea’s latest actions to reactivate its plutonium-producing Yongbyon plant spelled an end to six-nation disablement negotiations.
“We have been through ups and downs in this process before,” she added.
The U.N.’s atomic agency said on Wednesday that North Korea had expelled U.N. monitors from Yongbyon and planned to start reactivating it next week, reversing a 2007 deal to scrap its atomic bomb program.
“We believe that for the North Koreans to do so, it will only deepen its isolation,” Rice told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Perhaps the talks are merely pining for the fjords.
About Dave Schuler
Is it Monty Python Day at OTB?
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It’s probably safe to say that they are dead for this administration. The buck for attempting diplomacy with North Korea will pass to the next President.
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I’ve seen this movie before. There was the thaw at the end of the Clinton Administration which was refrozen when Bush came into office. Eight years later, we’re at the same point again. Except now the North Koreans HAVE the bomb.
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