Hill: NK Faces “Wilderness of Isolation”

The AP reports:

North Korea will find itself in a “wilderness of isolation” if it walks away from a landmark agreement to give up its nuclear program, but will see a host of economic and diplomatic opportunities if the deal sticks, the chief U.S. envoy for talks with the country said Tuesday.
. . . .

“If they walk away from this, they would truly walk into a wilderness of isolation,” Hill told the Asia Society in Manhattan. “They walk away not just from the U.S. but from all their neighbors.”

It’s odd how slow some professional journalists can be to catch on to the obvious:

Doubts were later raised about the [agreed statement] when North Korea said it would not dismantle its nuclear program unless Washington gives it civilian nuclear reactors to generate power.
. . . .

“I do believe the North Koreans know precisely what they agreed to,” Hill said. “Despite these public statements, we go into the next round … with a sense of optimism that the North Koreans understand the drill, that they’re going to have to disband their nuclear programs.”