(News Focus) Hill's bargaining skills once again put to crucial test

By Lee Chi-dong
BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- Top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill will once
again be walking a tightrope this week as he makes desperate efforts here to coax
North Korea into signing a deal on methods for inspecting its nuclear facilities.
Hill is squeezed between a recalcitrant Pyongyang and pressure from a departing
Bush administration eager to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough, paving the way
for its successor to concentrate on the next stage of denuclearization.
In 2005, Bush selected Hill, then serving as Washington's ambassador to Seoul, as
his new point man on Pyongyang, a recognition of the career diplomat's role in
negotiations over the 1995 Bosnia peace settlement.
Hill has since managed to keep North Korea's tumultuous denuclearization process
rolling, employing his own unique style of negotiating and braving the backlash
from his more hardline colleagues in Washington.
The envoy did not hesitate to meet his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan,
both in Beijing, the venue for the six-way talks, as well as in Pyongyang,
Berlin, and Singapore for showdowns aimed at breaking frequent deadlocks.
He played a key role in producing the Sept. 19 Joint Statement in 2005, a
hard-won deal between North Korea and its five dialogue partners -- the U.S.,
South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan -- which set the guidelines for
denuclearization. Last year, Pyongyang began disabling its main
plutonium-producing reactor in Yongbyon, followed by the demolition of a cooling
tower there and the submission of a declaration detailing its nuclear inventory
this year under an aid-for-disarmament deal.
"Certainly, Assistant Secretary of State Hill deserves credit for those
achievements," a senior South Korean foreign ministry official said. "He has also
contributed to the Bush administration's shift in its policy on North Korea."
But Hill drew criticism from hardliners who believe the envoy made too many
concessions to Pyongyang when its will to give up nuclear weapons was still
unconfirmed and the issue of its past abduction of Japanese citizens remains
unresolved.
Some even privately derided Hill with the epithet "Kim Jong-Hill," an amalgam of
the envoy's surname with the given name of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Hill has in fact often opted for ambiguous verbal deals or secret compromises
with North Korea. Supporters say it is an inevitable outcome when dealing with
the North's negotiating tactics and necessary for moving the talks forward, while
critics point out that it opens the possibility of future disputes.
The latest such case involved Hill's controversial deal in Pyongyang in early
October over verification measures on the North's nuclear claims.
Following the deal, the U.S. State Department removed Pyongyang from a list of
terrorism-sponsoring nations and flamboyantly announced that the North had agreed
to a set of "scientific procedures, including sampling and forensic activities."
North Korea immediately denied the U.S. assertion, saying sampling was not part
of the deal.
Hill flew to Singapore last week to meet the North Korean envoy and clarify their
mutual understanding, but no progress was reported.
"Obviously, we had some written understanding in Pyongyang but we need additional
written understanding. We had some oral understandings. Our view is if one's
willing to say something and give one's word on something, then one should be
willing to write it down as well," a bleary eyed Hill told reporters here Sunday
night.
Hill usually gives brief press interviews to international reporters struggling
to follow the closed-door six-way talks whenever he enters or leaves his hotel in
Beijing.
"Sometimes I felt like he was using the media to deliver a message to North Korea
when negotiations were stalled," a South Korean negotiator said. "He once
exchanged ferocious remarks with the North Korean side at table and soon after
told reporters that negotiations were going well."
When asked about whether this week's talks will be his last six-party session,
Hill said simply, "I don't know."
The career diplomat's job in the Obama administration has yet to be decided, but
many South Korean officials do not expect him to remain in his current post.
"This round of six-way talks is very important not only for the overall
denuclearization process but also for his career," the South Korean negotiator
said.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)