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U.S., Japan Agree to Pressure N. Korea
TOKYO (AP) - A senior U.S. envoy and Japan’s defense chief agreed to using ``dialogue and pressure’’ to persuade North Korea to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons development, officials said Tuesday.
"Here’s the deal: Shigeru, you do the "dialogue", and the rest of us will apply the pressure."
"Okay, Jim, fine with me, I’ll be the designated diplomat, but what’s all that on your laptop?"
"The airstrike."
"Oh. That qualifies as pressure."
The meeting came as Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly wrapped up the Tokyo leg of a three-nation Asia tour to coordinate policy ahead of multilateral talks expected next month on the North Korean nuclear dispute. Kelly and Defense Chief Shigeru Ishiba agreed to continue using ``dialogue and pressure’’ to resolve the yearlong nuclear crisis, Ishiba told reporters following the meeting.

``Resolving the matter diplomatically and peacefully does not mean accepting anything everything (North Korea) says,’’ Ishiba said. ``If it tries to benefit from nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, missiles or threats...that is not acceptable,’’ Ishiba said.

The question of how to defuse the crisis over North Korea’s suspected development of nuclear weapons without compromising Japan’s defense was a focus of Kelly’s earlier talks with Japanese officials.
One way to fix the problem would be to allow the Japanese to develop their own nukes ... oops, did I say that?
The second round of six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons development is expected to take place on Dec. 17-18 in Beijing, a senior South Korean official said Monday. ``It has not been officially announced, but the general mood is moving in that direction,’’ National Security Adviser Ra Jong-yil said. He added that the nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, the United States, China, and Russia would be held in the Chinese capital, Beijing.

Japan was pissed shaken when North Korea test-fired a missile over its territory in 1998 and has been moving ahead with plans for a U.S.-developed missile shield.

Kelly and his Japanese counterpart on Monday discussed the possibility of Washington offering written security assurances to North Korea in exchange for a full dismantling of its nuclear program. North Korea has made further negotiations contingent upon such a pact.
NKors offer the usual "something for nothing" deal: we give them something, they give us nothing.
But the prospect of the United States offering such assurances to North Korea has raised some concern in Japan that the U.S.-Japan security alliance could be compromised, leaving this country more vulnerable to a threat from the communist nation. Washington has assured Tokyo it would not make any arrangements with any other country that would undermine their mutual security pact.

Kelly reiterated Washington’s position on the matter in the morning meeting, a Defense Agency spokesman said. Following his meetings Monday, Kelly said the two sides were hopeful that a new round of negotiations with North Korea could be held next month.
At which time we’ll see how the grass diet is going in NKor land.
Posted by: Steve White 2003-11-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=21392