Disarming Pyongyang

Negotiations between the US and North Korea are in full swing, writes Ahmed Reda

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In the highest-level talks between the two countries in two years, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell met with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun last week on the eve of the annual Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) in Jakarta.

The statement issued after the extraordinary talks said Powell and Paek "spoke for 20 minutes on the margins of a regional security forum to go over ideas for ending North Korea's nuclear arms programmes that were presented last week in multilateral talks in Beijing."

The US, whose new proposal was presented last week at the third round of the so-called "six-party talks" between the United States, China, Japan, Russia, North and South Korea, seeks to give Pyongyang three months to shut down and seal its nuclear facilities in return for economic and diplomatic rewards.

The new American proposal envisions a two-stage process, which would start with North Korea declaring all its nuclear programmes and agreeing to abandon them within three months. South Korea and other countries would then start delivering badly needed fuel oil, and North Korea's security would be guaranteed during the disarmament period.

If North Korea meets the deadline, it would open the way to a broader and more permanent set of rewards, including its removal from Washington's list of states "sponsoring terrorism", the elimination of some economic sanctions, improved diplomatic relations with the US and greatly increased international assistance.

Powell said he and his North Korean counterpart did not negotiate the offer but sought "clarity" over each other's positions. "These are difficult negotiations. It just doesn't happen overnight," Powell said to a group of Indonesian students after meeting with Paek. "There is a great deal of mistrust between the US and North Korea." North Korea, on the other hand, said that Paek told Powell that if the US dropped its "hostile policy" towards Pyongyang, then the two countries might not be "permanent enemies".

Before Friday's meeting, direct contact between the US and North Korea had been limited to the sidelines of the multilateral talks. Pyongyang has long insisted that one-on-one dialogue with Washington is the best way to resolve the dispute.

The current statements from Washington suggest that the US is ready and willing to match North Korea "deed for deed" in the short-term if it agrees to dismantle its atomic weapons and halt their development in line with the new US offer.

Before the latest talks in Beijing, the Bush administration strongly refused to consider offering any aid to North Korea until it ended its nuclear programme. Indicating that Washington seeks diplomatic closure to the case, Powell said: "We showed flexibility in our position last week because we wanted our colleagues in the six-party talks to recognise the US was seeking a peaceful diplomatic solution."

The meeting between Powell and Paek indicates that Washington is intensifying efforts to sort out the crisis and make progress before the American presidential elections in November.

Although North Korea has not accepted the US proposal, participants in the six-party talks noted flexibility and agreed to meet again by the end of September.

The chain of events that followed North Korea's pullout from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in early 2003, were marked with what American officials repeatedly described as a tailored policy towards Pyongyang. This is in stark contrast to the Bush administration's dealings with Iraq and Iran, the other two members of the infamous "axis of evil". Thus far, negotiations with North Korea have been marked by diplomatic maneuvers and void rhetoric.

The Bush administration says North Korea acknowledged in 2002 that it was trying to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs. North Korea has since denied it. Meanwhile Pyongyang is still waiting for Washington to change its hostile policies and engage in some real give and take.