ID :
94074
Thu, 12/10/2009 - 08:29
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/94074
The shortlink copeid
Bosworth not likely produce breakthrough in nuclear talks in Pyongyang: expert
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- The trip to North Korea by a key U.S. diplomat will not produce a breakthrough in the nuclear standoff due to Pyongyang's insistence on forging a peace treaty through bilateral talks, an expert predicted Tuesday.
Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, flew into
Pyongyang earlier in the day for the first high-level contact with North Korea
since the inauguration of Barack Obama with the aim of persuading the North back
to the six-party talks on its nuclear dismantlement.
But Jack Pritchard, president of the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute,
says the North has a different agenda, made clear on his trip to Pyongyang late
last month.
"Prior to going to North Korea, I anticipated that the North Koreans would try to
create the situation in which they have multiple meetings with Ambassador
Bosworth and then commit to come back to the six-party talks," he said. "For
face-saving reasons, they would want at least two meetings."
Instead, Pritchard said, he found that the North Koreans want continued bilateral
talks with Washington to establish a peace treaty to replace the fragile
armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. He cited talks he had with Ri Gun,
director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's foreign
ministry, and other officials.
"After having been on this trip, it's my own view that North Koreans would like
to push this as far down the road as possible, maintaining bilateral-only
discussions with the United States," he said. "They are going to have that kind
of discussion. They are going to try to force the discussion on the peace
treaty."
Pritchard, a U.S. negotiator with North Korea in the Clinton administration, has
traveled to the North several times and has known Ri for 13 years.
"I don't expect a breakthrough," he said, referring to Bosworth's trip. "I don't
expect that the North Koreans will agree to come back to the six-party talks
after this initial meeting."
U.S. officials have said Bosworth, in Pyongyang until Thursday, will try to
persuade the North to come back to the six-party talks and will not discuss any
substance, best left to the six-nation forum.
North Korea has insisted on resolving the nuclear standoff through bilateral
talks with the U.S., although its leader, Kim Jong-il, recently hinted at a
possible return to the six-party talks depending on the outcome of Bosworth's
trip to Pyongyang.
Pritchard said that a peace treaty is a prerequisite for the North to get access
to international financial institutions, which can help the impoverished regime
rebuild its languishing economy, and end what the North sees as a hostile U.S.
attitude, which led to international sanctions for its weapons tests earlier this
year.
The North Koreans want to revive the "positive direction" achieved at the end of
the Clinton administration, when North Korea invited then-Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang and sent Marshal Jo Myong-rok to Washington to
sign a rapprochement agreement, he said.
"Those agreements, in their words, were completely destroyed by the Bush
administration," Pritchard said. "We need to hang this relationship on something
that is more tangible and more enduring between the U.S. administrations. And
that's their pitch for the peace treaty."
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday that Bosworth will not discuss
the peace treaty, leaving that to a working group established under a six-party
deal.
The six-party deals signed in 2005 and 2007 by the two Koreas, the U.S., China,
Japan and Russia call for the establishment of four working groups, including one
to discuss the peace regime, along with other working groups on normalization of
ties between North Korea and the U.S. and Japan, provision of economic aid to the
North and dismantlement of the North's nuclear programs.
Some analysts say any failure to bring the North back to the six-party talks will
result in the U.S. shifting responsibilities to China.
"Should the meeting fail to bring the North back to the talks, (it will) provide
a pretext for pressing China to use more of its material leverage on the North to
seek a return to those talks," said Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
On the North's recent revaluation of its currency, Pritchard said the North
Korean government wanted "to exert some more control over the system" by "sucking
up" all the resources of "the young entrepreneurs and the black market outside of
their control."
"That essentially has made everybody equally poor," Pritchard said. "They are
looking at this process of economic development, looking for outside influence
and also trying to get control of their own economy, and in this case bringing
socialism back to the forefront, and eliminating capitalism."
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- The trip to North Korea by a key U.S. diplomat will not produce a breakthrough in the nuclear standoff due to Pyongyang's insistence on forging a peace treaty through bilateral talks, an expert predicted Tuesday.
Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, flew into
Pyongyang earlier in the day for the first high-level contact with North Korea
since the inauguration of Barack Obama with the aim of persuading the North back
to the six-party talks on its nuclear dismantlement.
But Jack Pritchard, president of the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute,
says the North has a different agenda, made clear on his trip to Pyongyang late
last month.
"Prior to going to North Korea, I anticipated that the North Koreans would try to
create the situation in which they have multiple meetings with Ambassador
Bosworth and then commit to come back to the six-party talks," he said. "For
face-saving reasons, they would want at least two meetings."
Instead, Pritchard said, he found that the North Koreans want continued bilateral
talks with Washington to establish a peace treaty to replace the fragile
armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. He cited talks he had with Ri Gun,
director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's foreign
ministry, and other officials.
"After having been on this trip, it's my own view that North Koreans would like
to push this as far down the road as possible, maintaining bilateral-only
discussions with the United States," he said. "They are going to have that kind
of discussion. They are going to try to force the discussion on the peace
treaty."
Pritchard, a U.S. negotiator with North Korea in the Clinton administration, has
traveled to the North several times and has known Ri for 13 years.
"I don't expect a breakthrough," he said, referring to Bosworth's trip. "I don't
expect that the North Koreans will agree to come back to the six-party talks
after this initial meeting."
U.S. officials have said Bosworth, in Pyongyang until Thursday, will try to
persuade the North to come back to the six-party talks and will not discuss any
substance, best left to the six-nation forum.
North Korea has insisted on resolving the nuclear standoff through bilateral
talks with the U.S., although its leader, Kim Jong-il, recently hinted at a
possible return to the six-party talks depending on the outcome of Bosworth's
trip to Pyongyang.
Pritchard said that a peace treaty is a prerequisite for the North to get access
to international financial institutions, which can help the impoverished regime
rebuild its languishing economy, and end what the North sees as a hostile U.S.
attitude, which led to international sanctions for its weapons tests earlier this
year.
The North Koreans want to revive the "positive direction" achieved at the end of
the Clinton administration, when North Korea invited then-Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang and sent Marshal Jo Myong-rok to Washington to
sign a rapprochement agreement, he said.
"Those agreements, in their words, were completely destroyed by the Bush
administration," Pritchard said. "We need to hang this relationship on something
that is more tangible and more enduring between the U.S. administrations. And
that's their pitch for the peace treaty."
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday that Bosworth will not discuss
the peace treaty, leaving that to a working group established under a six-party
deal.
The six-party deals signed in 2005 and 2007 by the two Koreas, the U.S., China,
Japan and Russia call for the establishment of four working groups, including one
to discuss the peace regime, along with other working groups on normalization of
ties between North Korea and the U.S. and Japan, provision of economic aid to the
North and dismantlement of the North's nuclear programs.
Some analysts say any failure to bring the North back to the six-party talks will
result in the U.S. shifting responsibilities to China.
"Should the meeting fail to bring the North back to the talks, (it will) provide
a pretext for pressing China to use more of its material leverage on the North to
seek a return to those talks," said Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
On the North's recent revaluation of its currency, Pritchard said the North
Korean government wanted "to exert some more control over the system" by "sucking
up" all the resources of "the young entrepreneurs and the black market outside of
their control."
"That essentially has made everybody equally poor," Pritchard said. "They are
looking at this process of economic development, looking for outside influence
and also trying to get control of their own economy, and in this case bringing
socialism back to the forefront, and eliminating capitalism."
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)
