Obama Sets Date for US-NK Talks
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday that his special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, would visit the secretive state Dec. 8.
"We will be sending Ambassador Bosworth to North Korea on Dec. 8 to engage in direct talks with the North Koreans," Obama said during a joint news conference following a summit with President Lee Myung-bak at Cheong Wa Dae.
North Korea has long sought to have bilateral talks with the United States in an apparent attempt to overcome its economic predicament and international sanctions.
Professor Kim Yong-hyun at Dongguk
University in Seoul said it was meaningful that the U.S. President made public Bosworth's North Korea trip.
"He himself made public the trip schedule, which, in my understanding, puts more weight on the talks between the United States and North Korea," Kim told The Korea Times.
But he is skeptical about rosy expectations that this dialogue can immediately draw fruitful results.
"North Korea appeared to achieve some results during the bilateral talks but the United States focuses more on the six-party framework," he said. "So, I think the two sides will fine-tune future gatherings this time rather than agree on details."
Obama also indicated that he supports Lee's grand bargain proposal to provide economic incentives to North Korea in return for nuclear dismantlement, which is similar to a "comprehensive package" suggested by the United States.
"The thing I want to emphasize is that President Lee and I both agreed on the need to break the pattern that has existed in the past, in which North Korea behaves in a provocative fashion and then returns to talks for a while and then leaves the talks seeking further concessions," he said.
Professor Yoo Ho-yeol of Korea University in Seoul said that Pyongyang is now facing the big task of whether or not to keep its nuclear program since Seoul and Washington agreed on the grand bargain.
"Washington and Seoul voiced together that they will not offer assistance unless Pyongyang gives up its nuclear programs," he told The Korea Times. "So, I think North Korea has to choose security guarantees over nuclear ones or vice versa."
Meanwhile, professor Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said President Obama's speech seems to show America's softened stance toward the communist state.
"He stressed that North Korea will be offered assistance if it shows progress in nuclear disarmament. He did not even mention about human rights things," Yang said. "My understanding is that the United States has some expectation even though it is taking a cautious stance."