chief South Korean negotiator,
Chun Young-woo, acknowledged it. While expressing
frustration for North Korea's refusal to enter
negotiations until the fund issue was resolved, he
at one time remarked about North Korean negotiator
Kim: "The words coming out from him [Kim Kye-gwan]
is trustworthy, to a certain extent."
After all, "inconsistency" is a more
pronounced trait displayed by the US in its
dealing with North Korea. The US hasn't resolved
different voices within the
administration on whether to engage North Korea or
not. Wang Fan at the China Foreign Affairs
University said in a report in China Daily,
"Currently, Washington has not completed a
full-fledged DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of
Korea - North Korea] strategy and is still making
one move at a time."
Wang pointed out that
the US lacks a policy framework under which to
deal with North Korea in a consistent manner. The
lack of consistency was perhaps most visible when
former president Bill Clinton warmed to a
bilateral relationship with North Korea, and even
considered making a state visit to North Korea,
only to have his initiatives scrapped by the newly
elected George W Bush, who soured the looming
detente by labeling North Korea a member of the
"axis of evil".
Without consistency and
clarity in policy, the US attitude toward North
Korea is bound to be passive and reactive. That
is, when Pyongyang makes a move, Washington
responds with a countermove that is not based on a
strategic consistency.
"To a certain
extent, the policy of the US toward the DPRK is
still in a stage of passive response calibrated
according to the DPRK's policy changes and their
depths," Wang said, adding "it is not possible to
ascertain if the US policy towards the DPRK has
indeed undergone some strategic adjustment as of
now."
In a similar way, on Monday former
South Korean president Kim Dae-jung in New York
expressed concern over US inconsistency with North
Korea, pleading it not to change its latest
engagement posture toward North Korea. "If the US
doesn't change its attitude, the denuclearization
of the Korean Peninsula will succeed," he said.
Kim added: "What is worrisome is that
there are some people in the US who don't want
engagement with North Korea, and they may
introduce a problem to the six-party talks, as
seen in the BDA."
In September 2005, right
after the conclusion of talks in Beijing, the US
blacklisted BDA, accusing it of acting as a
conduit for money laundering. North Korea
responded by boycotting the six-nation talks for
more than a year.
The Syria
factor Just like BDA, some observers worry
about the current round of talks being derailed by
the alleged British media report that North Korea
is helping Syria to build nuclear weapons. North
Korea is visibly upset about the allegation. "The
claim that North Korea had a nuclear deal with
Syria is a fabrication crafted by some crazy
lunatics," North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator,
Kim Kye-gwan, told reporters on landing in Beijing
this week.
Cheong Seong-chang, a North
Korean expert at the Sejong Institute south of
Seoul, believes the Syrian issue is not likely to
wreck the talks. "It's still an allegation. There
is no concrete evidence provided. I don't think it
will become a stumbling block to the talks,"
Cheong said on Thursday.
"Just like the
HEU [highly enriched uranium] allegation, I get
the feeling that it is being exaggerated by
Washington hardliners. North Korea itself doesn't
want to venture to export nuclear technology
because it knows that its biggest ally China
doesn't like it," he said.
Cheong notes
that the allegation is coming from pro-Israel
figures such as former US envoy to the United
Nations, John Bolton, and US journalists with an
Israeli background. "That's not the official
stance of the US administration," he said. The US
government has yet to make an official statement
on the matter.
Li Dunqiu, a Chinese
government analyst on North Korea, agrees. "The
impact is not going to be big. Firstly, it is true
that North Korea and Syria have been cooperating
militarily in terms of conventional weaponry, but
not nuclear weapons. As of today, there is no
evidence offered. Secondly, the US knows that the
denuclearization of North Korea is more important
than the alleged Syria connection. So, the US may
raise the issue, but it is not likely to derail
the talks."
Sunny Lee is a
writer/journalist based in Beijing, where he has
lived for five years. A native of South Korea, Lee
is a graduate of Harvard University and Beijing
Foreign Studies University.
(Copyright
2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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