Amb. Hill Hints at Breakdown in Talks

From the NY Times:

BEIJING, Aug. 2 – Six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs may be suspended or even break off altogether if the participants cannot settle on a summary of principles for future disarmament talks, the chief American negotiator said Tuesday.

“Whether we have a draft that everyone agrees on, whether we have a recess of some kind, I don’t know yet,” the negotiator, Christopher Hill, told reporters here after an eighth day of the talks, which include China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

“I think the issue is how one winds this up,” he added. “That is, does it wind up with an agreement, does it wind up with parties saying, ‘Well, we have to do some more substantial consultation in capitals,’ or does it wind up in a flat-out disagreement.”
. . . .

The United States and North Korea appear to remain at loggerheads over Washington’s insistence that Pyongyang end all its nuclear programs, including ostensibly civilian power generation projects, if it wants to receive economic aid and greater government contact.

Pyongyang appears stubborn in its refusal to denuclearize. The fact that three of the five other parties to talks are supporting its spurious “right to peaceful uses” of nuclear energy can’t be helping matters. We’ve beaten the issue of Seoul’s motivations to death. For Russia and China, the apparent motive is to distract the energies of the United States. The cost in lives is of little consequence to them. They presume the lives lost will merely be Korean and American.

Afterthought: That said, the United States would make a grave mistake to be the first to walk away from the talks. We need to let the North Koreans walk out first or have the Chinese simply adjourn the session, so that we can report North Korea’s list of intentionally obtuse new demands as proof that they’re not serious. Before we can lay the groundwork for diplomatic consequences, we must be seen as having exhausted reasonable diplomatic options first.

I see no reason why the wait needs to be a long one.