EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on May 4)

Brinksmanship

North Korea's apparent attempts to get attention may backfire, further isolating
the country.

Last week, Washington said North Korea is only deepening its isolation with vows
to conduct a second nuclear test. Pyongyang made the threat last Wednesday,
saying that unless the United Nations apologizes for condemning its rocket
launch, it would conduct a second nuclear test. It also said it would test-fire
intercontinental ballistics missiles. The U.N. Security Council had earlier
issued a statement condemning the April 5 rocket launch, largely seen as a
test-firing of a ballistics missile. The Security Council also ordered stricter
enforcement of sanctions imposed on North Korea following a missile launch and a
nuclear test in 2006.
North Korea initially responded to the Security Council statement with the
announcement that it was abandoning the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing
the communist state and that it was restarting the nuclear plants at Yongbyon
that produced weapons-grade plutonium.
When the Security Council ordered a freeze on the foreign assets of North Korean
companies suspected of having played a role in the missile development program,
Pyongyang stepped up the ante, announcing that measures had been taken to
reprocess spent fuel rods. North Korea also announced plans to build a
light-water nuclear reactor. Under an earlier deal reached in 1994, a
multi-national consortium began building light-water nuclear reactor but the
project came to a halt when the deal broke down in 2002.
Pyongyang is pulling out all its cards in an effort to engage Washington in
bilateral talks. It is using everything in its "arsenal" - further nuclear tests,
restarting its nuclear program, and intercontinental ballistic missile - to bring
attention to itself. With the United States preoccupied by economic recovery and
the growing Taliban threat in Pakistan, Pyongyang may feel that drastic actions
are necessary to get the attention it wants - much like a spoiled brat throwing a
temper tantrum.
Although it has walked out of the stalled six-party talks, it has signaled
repeatedly that what it wants is direct negotiations with the United States. Some
experts believe that Pyongyang wishes to revive bilateral talks with the United
States that were discontinued in 2001.
So far the reaction from Washington has been rather cool. "They are digging
themselves into a deeper and deeper hole with the international community," said
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a U.S. Senate Appropriations
Committee hearing. Clinton also ruled out any economic aid for North Korea unless
it stops making threats and returns to the denuclearization talks.
Meanwhile, a senior Obama administration official said he expects that North
Korea will test a nuclear weapon before it returns to the multilateral
negotiations. This is the first time that a U.S. official has discussed the
possibility of Pyongyang conducting another nuclear test. Gary Samore, the Obama
administration's coordinator for weapons of mass destruction policy, also
predicted that Pyongyang would be forced back to negotiations within nine months.
"We will just wait," he said.
Samore's comments hint at the United States' reluctance to give into North Korean
brinksmanship. By predicting that Pyongyang will return to talks within nine
months, Samore has also suggested a deadline in an indirect way.
The Obama administration is turning out to be the strict parent that refuses to
pander to North Korea's tantrums. Pyongyang should realize that its
brinksmanship, which served it well in the past, is unlikely to work with the
Obama administration.
(END)