A U.S. university head said Tuesday that he is “very skeptical” about the role and outcome of six-party talks which aim to denuclearize North Korea.
Mitchell Reiss, president of Washington University who is currently in charge of foreign affairs and security at the camp of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, made the remark in an interview with Yonhap News.
“There are still people hoping to have dialog with (North Korea) through six-way talks in the Barack Obama administration,” Reiss said. “Frankly speaking, North Korea may be lured to the negotiation table but I don’t know what kinds of dialog would be possible (at the six-way talks).”
“North Korea can have talks with us whenever it wants to,” he said. “(North Korea) has diplomatic channels in New York and other countries. It’s not always necessary to have the framework of the six-party talks.”
Reiss, however, said that the United States has to prepare for the possibility that North Korea will change its mind. “However, there are precedents that North Korea did not abide by agreements it reached with its negotiating partners. There is no guarantee that similar things would never recur.”
Reiss said he is not sure that Pyongyang really wants to talk with the U.S. about anything other than its unacceptable bid to be recognized as a nuclear power state.
The six-way talks, involving South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan have been stalled for years and Pyongyang and Washington are seeking to revive the process.
Reiss was a chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea on a project to construct light-water reactors there in the 1990s.
In the early 2000s, he worked as a strategic policy adviser for Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Reiss does not dismiss the importance of dialog with the North but supports the so called, carrot-and-stick approach with the reclusive state.
He said, "Things are changing and the new leader, Kim Jong-un, is dealing with a world that's very different where both South Korea and the U.S. have ended active engagement with the North.
He added, the alliance with South Korea will remain robust under Republican rule in the U.S.
However, he would not answer questions over the specifics of Romney's policy vision, saying he wants to let the candidate speak for himself.