By Kang Hyun-kyung
It won’t be an easy task for North Korea to meet the strict standards outlined by the United States for the resumption of dialogue, even though it may make conciliatory gestures in the next few weeks, experts said Thursday.
Several North Korea watchers here echoed the dim prospects for the coming months saying the United States has learned from the past when dealing with the North.
The skeptical views erupted hours after Washington urged Pyongyang again to take action demonstrating that there has been a fundamental change in their behavior as a precondition for engagement.
During a daily press briefing, Philip Crowley, spokesman of the U.S. State Department, specified what kinds of measures could be viewed as sincere efforts that North Korea could make.
“A first step that North Korea can take is to cease its belligerent and provocative actions ... There are some specific actions that North Korea has committed (in 2005 during the six-party talks),” he said.
Asked how North Korea would react to the U.S. government’s call, Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow of the Sejong Institute, speculated that the North may issue a statement declaring its willingness to stop any acts that could raise tensions on the Peninsula.
“To send a signal showing its willingness to talk, North Korea may also consider announcing that it will allow nuclear inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit its nuclear site,” the North Korea watcher told The Korea Times. The North kicked out of IAEA inspectors from the nuclear site last year.
Sohn Kwang-joo, chief editor of North Korea news outlet the Daily NK, stressed that it was a separate issue whether the North’s possible conciliatory gestures, such as releasing a statement or inviting IAEA inspectors back to the North as Cheong exemplified, would meet the U.S. standards to consider engagement.
He was skeptical about the prospects of the U.S. government’s engagement with the North in the near future.
Sohn noted that there has been a vicious circle of empty talk and North Korea’s breaking its commitments in the multilateral agreements.
“In the North, the same leader has been in power since the mid 1990s, whereas those in the top job in the U.S. have been replaced during the same period,” he said.
“Former U.S. presidents would have known that the North was not sincere, when North Koreans offered overtures after committing provocations. Despite their awareness, they were duped because the years they could stay in office were limited and they might have felt that they had to engage with the North before their terms ended,” he said.
Sohn pointed his finger at the fundamental difference—the democratic government in the United States and the dictatorship in the North— as a source of the vicious circle of empty talks and North Korea breaking its commitments.
Wi Sung-lac, South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy, left for Washington Thursday for policy consultations with U.S. officials.
His heading to Washington came hours after Chinese nuclear envoy Wu Daewei had met with the U.S. officials.
The gatherings came amid a North Korea’s Workers Party meeting to be held soon.
Speculations are that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may appoint his third son, Jong-un, to a key party post during the major event as part of the succession plan.
North Korea watchers here opine that chances for the resumption of the six-party talks were slim as the U.S. government has already learned its lesson that talk for the sake of talking has not advanced denuclearization.