Task Prior to Second Six-Way Talks Concerning North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons

It is expected that the world-dimension discussion on the solution of the North Korean nuclear tensions will be activated again as Kim Jong-il, the leader of North Korea, and Wu Bangguo, Chinese vice premier, agreed to resuming six-way talks in Pyongyang on October 30.

It is a positive sign that North Korea shows such a reaction to the “multilateral security guarantee” 10 days after President Bush presented in the U.S.-North Korea summit talk on October 20. However, preliminary tuning among countries concerned, such as South and North Korea, U.S, China, Russia, and Japan, is necessary.

Above all, there is a difference between the positions of North Korea and U.S. with the second round of six-way talks. While North Korea said that it will join the six-way talks if it is a procedure for the realization of settlement based on the principle of spontaneous action, the U.S. is saying that it will consider the issue of a security guarantee on the premise that North Korea shows development in abandoning nuclear weapons.

The problem is not simple even though. On the surface, it seems to be easily solved if one side takes a step back. North Korea wants to perform the easy steps among all of the claims of North Korea and U.S. at the same time. Shortly, it intends to begin the duty of abandoning nuclear after accepting support from U.S., and it is different from the solution provided by the U.S. The U.S. intends to carry out security guarantee in accordance with progress in North Korea’s abandonment of nuclear weapons.

Moreover, when we think in view of a deep-rooted distrust between North Korea and the U.S., we can expect that it won’t be easy to find a common ground between the mitigation of economic sanctions against North Korea, which it hopes for the U.S, and abandonment of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), which the U.S. hopes for North Korea.

However, it is certainly encouraging to resume talks because it tries to find peaceful solutions to prevent the North Korean nuclear issue from driving into catastrophe.

Besides, North Korean leader Kim’s decision to call on China, which reflects his caring about improvement of relations with China, suggests that he will sincerely approach the solution of nuclear tension which worries China. The government will analyze such situations and deliberate on the strategy in second six-way talks through discussion with U.S. and Japan.

Young-Sik Kim spear@donga.com