A License to Stall

If you read those breathless reports that North Korea was really, really  ready to fully denuclearize,  you can  catch your breath now: 

“We had a big discussion about putting an overall deadline in,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, told reporters after talks concluded today. “We had a consensus. Since we were not very successful in meeting the date in the spring, we decided that we should have working groups before we come up with a deadline. It’s a more careful approach.”

North Korea agreed with the U.S., South Korea, Russia, China and Japan on Feb. 13 to close its Yongbyon reactor, which produced weapons-grade plutonium, in return for 50,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil and an additional 950,000 tons or equivalent assistance when it declares and disables all of its nuclear plants. This week’s discussions were aimed at setting a timetable for accomplishing those next steps.  [Bloomberg, Alan T. Cheng and Bradley K. Martin]

Translation:  let’s not set deadlines that we all know North Korea won’t meet.  That’s a license to foot-drag the tough issues — full disclosure, inspection, verification, and actual disarmament — into the next administration, until some perceived slight or the refusal of some obnoxious North Korean demand  is seized on as an excuse to renege on everything.  Now let’s hear from the government we’re defending against this grave threat:

“Much of the talks this time focused on whether to set deadlines, if so the scope of the deadlines, and the targets to set within deadlines,” South Korean chief negotiator Chun Yung Woo said today. “However, this is a very difficult and complicated matter, so no one really expected this to happen and I think it will be hard to accomplish.”

That seems remarkably patient until you consider what a good thing the South Koreans have going for themselves.  We’ve created too many diplomatic and  financial incentives for South Korea to oppose and undermine the realization of  American interests.

In unrelated news, the North Korean people are still starving, and nobody still cares.

Ah, back to earth again.