Talks to Restart on September 13; Leach: “I Do Not Rule Out Optimism”

This is an updated post.

With the news that the talks are now on again, apparently for September 13, the odds dim that substantial progress will result. Begin with this money quote on South Korea’s position: “South Korean officials are pinning their hopes on a U.S. concession.”

That hope appears misplaced. The New York Times published some blunt comments from Reps. Jim Leach and Tom Lantos, who represent the moderate views of both parties in the House International Relations Committee, and who shared a working vacation that included a stop in Pyongyang. Both send the message that Washington is in no mood to tolerate further delays in the talks.

“In view of Hurricane Katrina, the attention of the country will for quite some time shift to domestic issues,” Mr. Lantos said he told North Korean officials. He said a “dilatory diplomatic performance” by North Korea would anger the American public.

I don’t actually buy the Katrina angle, but a message of firmness is certainly the message that needs to be sent. Unless that same message gets through to Chung Dong-Young, however, South Korea will continue to undercut the U.S. position and any hope for a solution that protects U.S. security interests.

A united front could be overdue in any event, since North Korea is “clarifying” that it won’t give up its reactors, something that Leach calls “a sticking point,” although Rep. Lantos suggested that the issue could be put aside for resolution later. Now have a look at this:

North Korea offered a significant clarification on Tuesday of its position in the deadlocked nuclear disarmament talks, insisting that it would not dismantle its nuclear reactor – considered the country’s main source of weapons-grade plutonium – unless the United States and its allies built a nuclear power plant to replace it.

The remarks Tuesday were the first time North Korea had publicly articulated its stance since six-party disarmament talks adjourned Aug. 7 without a breakthrough. The demand runs counter to the U.S. insistence that the country must first dismantle all of its nuclear facilities before even considering a civilian nuclear program.
. . . .
We can never give up our right to nuclear activity for peaceful purposes,” Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main state-run newspaper, said in a commentary carried by the North’s official news agency, KCNA.

“We have built our nuclear energy facilities over the past decades by tightening our people’s belts. The facilities are built with our people’s blood and sweat,” Rodong said. “It is unimaginable for us to succumb to outside pressure and give up our independent nuclear power industry without an alternative that will compensate us with nuclear energy.”

What’s the best you can say about this? Here’s how Leach put it: “I do not rule out optimism.”