(EDITORIAL from JoongAng Daily on Feb. 13)

The only road for the North

The focus is on whether or not the six-way talks to handle the North Korean
nuclear problem will soon continue. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il recently met
with a Chinese envoy but did not make clear to Wang Jiarui, director of the
International Department of the Communist Party, whether or not he intended to
revive the talks.

However, negotiations between the two countries are urgently in progress,
including a trip to China by North Korea???s chief representative to the six-way
talks, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kim Gye-gwan, to meet
Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who chairs the negotiations.
Around 14 months have passed since the nations involved last sat down together.
During the interim, North Korea conducted its second nuclear test and even fired
an intercontinental ballistic missile. The international community stood against
the action with a sanction resolution by the United Nations Security Council. The
North Korean economy, which took a step backwards due to market crackdowns and
strengthening the planned economy, has fallen into a bottomless pit.
The recent currency reform it conducted as a last option is known to have made
the situation even worse. This is why it is predicted that there is a higher
chance North Korea will return to the negotiation table. It is now clearer that
North Korea has no way of overcoming its economic crisis without external
support, so it has no choice but to get actively involved in solving the nuclear
problem. It is predicted that discussions on the nuclear problem will progress
faster than before if the six-way talks restart. The denuclearization process,
which had included the demolition of the cooling towers of the Yongbyon reactor
in 2008, will start again and progress quickly, and UN Security Council
restraints will then be lifted. Discussions on establishment of a peace treaty,
which North Korea strongly desires, can also start.
If a South and North Korean summit meeting is held in step with such progress,
exchange and cooperation projects between the two countries, which have been at a
standstill, can be reactivated. Furthermore, if the situation turns to completely
solving the North Korean nuclear problem, Seoul, which has publicly pledged full
support for Pyongyang, and international society will be able to give much-needed
aid.
This order of progression is the only way North Korea can break away from the
economic ordeal that has continued in the country for the past 20 years.
I urge Kim Jong-il once again to stop looking left and right and decide once and
for all to return to the six-party talks.
(END)

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