North Korea Nuke Talks End Without Progress
The latest round in the six-party talks with North Korea were full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The first talks on North Korea’s nuclear program since the communist nation tested an atomic device ended Friday without an agreement to move ahead on disarmament or schedule further negotiations.
During five days of meetings in Beijing, negotiators said Pyongyang refused to talk about its nuclear weapons program, and instead stuck to its demand that the U.S. remove financial restrictions it has imposed on the regime.
North Korea’s main nuclear envoy said Friday the communist nation would bolster its atomic arsenal in response to U.S. pressure. “The U.S. is taking a tactic of both dialogue and pressure, and carrots and sticks,” Kim Kye Gwan told reporters. “We are responding with dialogue and a shield, and by a shield we are saying we will further improve our deterrent.”
No great surprise here. Kim’s regime has every incentive to continue its program and it’s hard to conceive of what others might offer that would make them give up the prestige and security that possession of nukes has conferred.
The ball remains where it always has, in China’s court.
IMO we’re making a serious error in not bolstering China’s role in these talks at least rhetorically.