Is North Korea ready for a dialogue again?
Citing its endeavor to achieve denuclearization, the United States of America today addressed the issue of denuclearization of North Korea and revealed obstacles to resumption of the Six-Party Talks.
In her remarks to the press at Seoul, South Korea, Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies cites reasons why is it so difficult to resume the Six-Party Talks.
She stresses that Six-Party Talks remains very much that North Korea continues to assert its nuclear weapons status.
She says that not so many months ago the North Korea declared the Six-Party process dead, and that it would not and would never negotiate on the subject of their nuclear weapons capability.
Ms. Davies stresses that she does not believe the issue should be stated in the terms it so often is to the United States, and the ROK, and the other of the five parties.
No Positive Attitude From North Korea
Ms. Davies say the US simply does not see the positive attitude of North Korea toward fulfilling its obligations, its commitments, to living up to UN Security Council Resolutions, and we need to see that.
There’s a need to see some sign that the North Koreans are sincere about what is the central issue of the Six-Party process, which is the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Ms. Davies added.
“The last thing I will say is we remain open, of course, to dialogue with North Korea.” – Ms. Davies
As a diplomat, Ms. Davies underlines she would like very much to get back to that, but she thinks it is important that they only do so when the conditions are right, when North Korea has reversed the direction in which it has been moving for many months now.
In addition, it is only possible for the resumption of the dialogue when it re-embraces the centrality of denuclearization as the way forward.
UN Resolutions
In June 2009, the United Nations unanimously adopted resolution 1874, imposing stricter sanctions on the recalcitrant regime.
The new resolution has 34 points, the first of which “Condemns in the strongest terms the nuclear test conducted by the DPRK on 25 May 2009 (local time) in violation and flagrant disregard of its relevant resolutions, in particular resolutions 1695 (2006) and 1718 (2006), and the statement of its President of 13 April 2009 (S/PRST/2009/7).”
Since the adoption of Resolution 1874, countries have intercepted and seized tons of contraband cargo, including a massive arms shipment uncovered by Thailand in December. These interdictions show that countries are taking seriously their obligations to enforce these tough new measures. The United States will continue to press on sanctions implementation until there is concrete, verifiable progress on denuclearization.
Advancing human rights is a top U.S. priority in US North Korea policy as well and is among the primary factors that will determine if any long-term improvement between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) will be possible.
