America Must Be Flexible in North Korea Talks

Yesterday, Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myoung Bak held a press conference. President Barrack Obama announced that Stephen Bosworth would be going to visit Pyongyang as a U.S. special envoy and clearly declared the U.S.’s intention to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program. The special envoy is making its first visit in seven years. Just before Stephen Bosworth left for North Korea, President Obama went over the basic principles of the six-party talks, making sure that the same rules will apply when the U.S.-North Korea talks happen. The sole purpose, stated President Obama, of the special envoy to North Korea is to prove the U.S.’s strong determination for nuclear disarmament.

Although President Obama’s sending of the special envoy is a good sign, the solution he is looking for has an aspect of insufficiency. Obama’s goal is based solely on what the U.S. can gain from the surrounding countries that they deal with. On the other hand, North Korea only wants to have a U.S.-North Korea bilateral talk in order to come to an agreement about North Korean nuclear disarmament. The root of North Korean nuclear armament comes from different perspectives: North Korea states that they armed themselves with nuclear weapons because of the U.S.’s policy of hostility, while the U.S.’s perspective on this matter is that North Korea produced nuclear weapons to sustain its political structure.

If the USA wants to move forward with the disarmament of the North Korean nuclear program, it needs to prove that it is going to be flexible. However, if the U.S. should continue to be firm about resuming the six-party talks, it will be difficult for the talks to resume. The U.S. will fail to succeed if it does not approach this bilateral talk on nuclear disarmament in a peaceful and a quick manner.

President Obama emphasized that “We should stop the past cycle and stop this.” His speech hinted at dissatisfaction with the previous talks of denuclearization and how he was striving for “complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement” of North Korea’s nuclear program. The U.S. has to approach talks with North Korea with flexibility and an open-mind if Barack Obama wishes to fulfill his goals. If the U.S. fails to be flexible, the denuclearization talks could get off track and this would lead to a situation no one desires.