EDITORIAL: Engaging North Korea: A New Agreement With an Unusual Degree of Promise
By The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
Feb. 14–The agreement unveiled on Tuesday calling for North Korea to halt its pursuit of nuclear power in return for food, fuel and other aid isn’t the first of its kind. Seventeen months ago, Pyongyang reached a similar arrangement with Japan, South Korea, China, Russia and the United States. That deal collapsed amid the usual suspicions (plus an American strike at North Korean bank accounts in Macau).
What is different now?
Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, offered one telling explanation: This agreement has a stronger multilateral cast. North Korea alarmed just about everyone with its nuclear weapons test last year. It infuriated China, long the link between North Korea and the international community. The Chinese have an immense stake in the new arrangement. Will Pyongyang risk reneging on the deal?
What the Bush team might add is that its approach has changed — considerably for the better. For a long time, the White House insisted that its officials would not talk directly with their North Korean counterparts. Yet there was Christopher Hill, the American negotiator, meeting with North Korean diplomats in Berlin last month. The session fit the gradual engagement critical to overcoming barriers.
John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, expressed dismay with the agreement. Condoleezza Rice and others have recognized that the international community has hardly reaped dividends from attempting to isolate further Kim Jong Il, hoping for the day his brutal regime would fall. The secretary of state (through the able Hill) has embarked on the necessary step-by-step effort, seeking to build trust and influence.
Thus, the agreement represents a breakthrough, yet still a first step. North Korea faces a 60-day deadline for closing its main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon (international inspectors verifying the process). In exchange, North Korea will receive 50,000 tons of fuel oil or the equivalent in economic or humanitarian aid. Japan and the United States will enter talks with Pyongyang to normalize their relations.
Eventually, North Korea will get another 950,000 tons in aid if it disables the reactor and comes fully clean on its nuclear activities. Negotiations are set for March on these and other details, the talks promising to reveal the true intent of Kim, his response to a White House that has smartly altered its way.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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