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NKorean nuclear talks in limbo
23/12/2006 08:32 - (SA)
Beijing - The chance of a breakthrough in talks on North Korea's nuclear program remains as remote as ever, analysts say, as negotiators left Beijing empty-handed on Saturday after the discussions ended in deadlock.
The six-party negotiations, which resumed on Monday after a break of 13 months and Pyongyang's first ever atom bomb test in October, broke up on Friday, with envoys failing to persuade the reclusive state to give up its nuclear weapons.
The talks snagged on North Korea's refusal to launch substantive discussions until the United States lifted financial sanctions imposed last year which have left millions of dollars of North Korean funds in limbo in a Macau bank.
Analysts say the failure of the talks - involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States - was no surprise as the gap between the aims of Washington and Pyongyang was simply too wide to bridge.
"North Korea has only been interested in the lifting of sanctions while the US expects to discuss the nuclear issue," said Nam Sung-Wook, an expert on North Korea affairs at Korea University in Seoul.
"They have different dreams on the same bed... it was a destined course so it's no surprise."
North Korea's chief negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan blamed the failure of the talks on Washington's "hostile" policy toward Pyongyang, while chief US envoy Christopher Hill said Kim did not have the authority needed to negotiate.
Masao Okonogi, a Korean affairs expert at Keio University in Japan, explained that North Korea, emboldened by its shock nuclear test, now believes it is in a stronger negotiating position.
"North Korea is exploring ways to build a playing field on their terms," said Okonogi.
Specific rewards
Hajime Izumi, professor of International Relations at the University of Shizuoka in Japan, said Pyongyang was also angered by Washington's failure to offer specific rewards in exchange for North Korea's denuclearisation.
"They are saying, 'What can you give us if we stop the Yongbyon (nuclear) facility?' The US is hesitating to spell out its reward. North Korea does not like that," said Izumi.
The North scored one minor victory, securing a promise for another round of talks on financial sanctions in New York next month - further evidence of its improved bargaining power, according to Okonogi.
Analysts agreed that North Korea is in no hurry to surrender its nuclear weapons, while the other states involved in the talks are under pressure to produce results.
"North Korea is looking at this as a long-term issue. They can spend one year, two years on this, whereas the United States wants something done now," Okonogi said.
John Feffer, the global affairs director at the US-based International Relations Center, agreed.
"The Bush administration needs a foreign policy victory," he said.
"With Iraq falling apart, the Taliban rising in Afghanistan, and Iran thumbing its nose at Washington, the Bush administration would like to be able to say, before the next elections, that it handled at least one foreign policy crisis adequately."
- AFP
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