UPDATE: N. Korean Delegate Fails to Show

Is this a walkout? If so, it’s the perfect diplomatic storm. All of the other parties had apparently agreed on a draft statement of very fuzzy general principles. Under those circumstances, even China would be under pressure to abstain on a sanctions resolution, or alternatively, to turn off the fuel spigot.

I doubt even North Korea would be that stupid.

Update to an update: The Washington Post has more:

[U.S. delegate Amb. Chris] Hill, briefing reporters after an evening of negotiations, portrayed the stalemate essentially as a standoff between North Korea on one side and the other five nations — China, Russia, South Korea, the United States and Japan — on the other. There was no comment from North Korean diplomats.

South Korea’s delegation head, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, also described the stalemate in those terms, telling South Korean reporters that the other five countries voiced approval of China’s suggestion and were awaiting a response from Pyongyang.

If the talks break down, this is how we want the news to read. Of course, they haven’t broken down yet, but speculation about what happens if they do has begun. The Post observes:

Hill appeared to acknowledge for the first time publicly that the new round of talks might end without any forward movement. Such an outcome would strengthen the hand of officials in the Bush administration who contend the talks are not helpful and that the United States instead should seek sanctions against North Korea in the U.N. Security Council.

Speaking as one who sees things from the same “hard-line” perspective many in the government (and speaking for absolutely none of them), I see U.N. action about the same way I see the talks themselves: a necessary and otherwise unpromising prerequisite to doing something bolder. No, I don’t mean war or a strike. At this point, I doubt whether a strike would be effective. We need to be looking at exploiting the regime’s political and economic vulnerabilities. We need to be looking at the root cause–the greater problem–the regime itself. To solve that problem, we will need to start working much more closely with North Korean people.