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North Korea nuclear talks begin
Delegations from the United States, North Korea and China have started discussions on North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Wednesday's talks, the first since the nuclear crisis in the North began last October, started with a working breakfast between the US and the Chinese before the discussions in Beijing got under way in earnest.
Good thing they didn't invite the Nkors to the breakfast — they'd eaten the napkins and the flowers in the table setting.
The three-day talks are being led by the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs, James Kelly, and the deputy director general of North Korea's American Affairs Bureau, Li Gun. Mr Kelly made no comment as he left his hotel for the discussions, at the Diaoyutai State Guest House, the walled garden compound where China receives visiting dignitaries.
Kelly's been the special representative for North Korea. He's the one they spilled the nuke "secret" to back in October...
In a related move that reflects the tension between the US and North Korea, 10 North Korean fighter jets began a training exercise, South's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday. They were monitoring US and Russian surveillance planes, the South Koreans said.
Where did the NKors find the fuel for a gaggle of MiG-15's?
The Beijing meeting represents a breakthrough in a dangerous six-month impasse over the North's nuclear programme. But analysts warned that negotiations were likely to be difficult, with the US and North Korea appearing to approach the talks from hard bargaining positions. North Korea has warned in recent days that it was ready to reprocess its spent nuclear fuel rods and thereby face extinction, while US General Leon LaPorte, commander of the 37,000 US troops based in South Korea, said on Tuesday that the North "poses many threats to global stability". The US-South Korean alliance "provides the military force that deters North Korean aggression and it stands ready to defeat any external provocation", he added.
A rough translation of that is: "These guys make gruesome faces and utter horrendous threats, and they hold great parades, but they're Iraq, only with kimchi."
The US wants to persuade North Korea to close down its nuclear programmes, while the North wants assurances the US will not attack.
You do your part, and we'll do ours.
A BBC correspondent says that who takes part in the talks has been a sticking point in itself. North Korea describes China's role as simply that of host, while the US, in an attempt to internationalise the issue, insists Beijing is a full party. On Friday it appeared that the meeting itself could be in doubt, after North Korea's state news agency announced that Pyongyang was already reprocessing the spent fuel rods — the step necessary to produce weapons-grade plutonium. That statement was amended on Monday to read that the North was "successfully going forward to reprocess" the 8,000 rods.
Oh. Well. That's different, then...
This new statement appears to fit with Western and Asian intelligence assessments that the reprocessing plant at Yongbyon is not yet operational. The last time James Kelly held talks with a North Korean delegation, he accused them pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, sparking the crisis in October.
I'm sure the NKors are happy to see him again. Nice move by GWB, sending the same man who blew the whistle.
Posted by: Steve White 2003-04-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=13387