Two days ago, I posted about a Tokyo Shimbun report that the North Koreans said they’d only include three sites around Yongbyon in their disclosure. If true, that means the North Koreans have renounced this deal, and it’s game over.
Also two days ago, Chris Hill held an on-the-record briefing at the State Department, and Chris Hill’s skill at schmoozing a mostly admiring media while telling them (and us) almost nothing was a wonder to see. There’s no money quote I can really give you here, because the efforts of a few determined journalists to get Hill to clarify what the North Koreans actually said at Shenyang were long and tortuous. Clearly, Hill became irritated with it. Here’s just a small sample, but watch or read the whole thing yourself.  Â
QUESTION: Well, okay, that’s what I didn’t — but you talked about — that there were elements there and you kind of dismissed the Japanese newspaper report as talking about the opening statement. But I never really got a sense from your answer as to what the North Korean position was at the end of those meetings.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: That’s because I didn’t want to tell you what their position was because they’re — (laughter) — you know, it’s not for me to stand here and tell you about the North Korean position.
QUESTION: Right.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: But I can tell you our position. But I did feel it was worth mentioning that the press reports — I didn’t say “Japanese,” by the way — the press reports concerned opening statements in Shenyang.
QUESTION: So you think that they’ve moved beyond those opening statements –
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: (Laughter.) I think we have a basis for moving forward –
Video of the full briefing here:
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The fun parts are the first question at 4:45, a second attempt to actually get an answer out of Hill at 9:25, and a third attempt by a British journalist at 19:10 to press Hill on uranium and the scope of what North Korea is willing to disclose.  If the North Koreans really aren’t living up to their commitments, Hill isn’t even preparing the public or sending so much as a veiled public warning to the North Koreans.  Full transcript here. Since then, however, Hill has spoken of trying to impose a bit of structure on this never-ending process.
The U.S. government said it wants a six-nation agreement to be reached next month for North Korea to declare and disable its nuclear weapons program by the end of this year.
“We are really going to try to get to this in early September,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters in Washington yesterday. [Bloomberg]
Since the chances of that are virtually nil, the interesting question is how we will react to North Korea’s likely failure to agree to those basics … again.  Every stage is a new negotiation that requires us to make new concessions.
Other low points are the idea of us delegating the monitoring and verification to the Russians (6:50), Hill’s inability to clarify what the North Koreans must do to get off the terrorism list, and the absolutely vapid questions from most of the European and South Korean journalists, focusing mainly on meetings of personalities.
I think we need to see if the original Japanese report is accurate or not. I’m about at the point where I’ll admit the Bush admin wasn’t giving KJI enough rope to hang himself, but just ordinary slack.
[...] Read more of this story… [...]
[...] This is an excellent entry about the talks with North Korea and the plans for the next one in Geneva. The video is a must see, and make sure to read the commentary too. It has some excellent insight as usual. [?] Share This [...]
haha, a lot of dodging, a lot of vagueness, and 47 mins. of spin city. That was pretty funny on a subject that is dead serious.
[...] See, the reason why I say this is because Kim is backing out on the deal (as usual) and the game of cat and mouse continues. A good example of the failed talks is on One Free Korea’s posting. Pyongyang is not decaring all the stuff they have, and the Christopher Hill danced around the issue which tells me not a lot of progress has been made. Yet at the same time, money is thrown at it in hopes Kim will change. Kim will never change. [...]
[...] Chris Hill is ducking questions about what North Korea is agreeing to disclose and disable this week as he shuttles off to Switzerland, probably in an effort to paper over the latest eruption of North Korean reality: mendacity is the only constant. To the extent that we have really reached an agreement with the North Koreans at all, I don’t think North Korea is “interpreting” those terms the same way our State Department interprets them. I don’t think careful observers will be deceived about that, but most of the news media will continue to fail to report it, so it won’t matter. [...]
[...] To say that North Korea is not producing and pushing drugs when all of the evidence we have suggests that it is is quite simply a lie — a dirty, expedient, political lie that only shows Pyongyang that we will embrace its lies as our own. It rewards crime and mendacity, and thus invites more of it. Does this bode well for an honest process of disarmament? Or, for that matter, our national drug policy? The Administration is simply playing politics with the inconvenient fact of North Korea’s dope dealing, the same way it played politics with its money laundering, the same way it played politics with its illegal arms dealing, the same way it wants to play politics with the list of state sponsors of terrorism.  Each case demonstrates a new low in disregard for law and truth for the sake of a dubious objective. There are even signs we’re willing to ignore just the latest exposure of North Korea’s proliferation. So just how thorough does anyone suppose our inspection and verification regime will be? [...]
[...] Not just “material,” but North Koreans, “a number” of whom were reportedly killed in the Israeli strike. The Washington Post’s latest story is consistent with this version and corroborates parts of it.  According to this AFP story, President Bush saw the intel and was still unprepared to abandon Agreed Framework 2.0. With the reports steadily leaking out, it’s going to be hard to sustain the charade now. One can only imagine the ferocity of the debate behind the scenes. [...]