Sanctions Update

Either Hillary Clinton reads The New Ledger or I’m not the only one who is worried that the Obama Administration will relax sanctions too early because of vaporous North Korean promises that it will return to talks. Either way, she seems to have wanted to put such fears to rest:

“We have absolutely no intention of relaxing or offering to relax North Korean sanctions at this point whatsoever,” Clinton said. [AFP]

Meanwhile, Chris Hill’s replacement as Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, implicitly supports the skeptical consensus about North Korea’s “heavily hedged” promise to return to six-party talks, by praising regional cooperation with sanctions. I’m not sure I agree with all of this:

“I have rarely seen better coordination between China and the United States in particular,” said Campbell, formerly a scholar specialized in Asian security.

“There is a virtually unprecedented acceptance of basic goals and ambitions associated with the six-party talks and negotiations with North Korea.” [Reuters]

Meanwhile, North Korea is continuing with the episodic charm offensive it began with last week’s missile launches:

On Wednesday, North Korea’s main newspaper Rodong Sinmun scorned U.S. policy as “shameless, preposterous and brigandish sophism,” the official KCNA news agency reported.

“It was none other than the U.S. that compelled the DPRK to have access to nuclear deterrent,” KCNA quoted the paper as saying. The DPRK is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s formal name.

Take a drink, everyone! One the other hand, I get scared when I read things like this:

[Campbell] also said the North’s neighbors may be considering fresh initiatives, but gave no details. “We are now reviewing steps in the near future,” he said, adding that the United States was also closely consulting with Japan and South Korea. “I think we will have more to say about this shortly.”

If he means freezing the assets of Koryo Tours, the Korean Friendship Association, the Chosun Fund, and the Danchon Credit Bank, I’m looking forward to it. And yet I have an uneasy feeling that it will be something less well advised.