View talks with skepticism

HONOLULU -- The North Koreans have set both doves and hawks all a-twitter in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul by agreeing to discuss its nuclear plans with American diplomats. But a word of skepticism is in order.

Over the past six months, North Korea has broken agreements that had supposedly precluded it from acquiring nuclear arms and has prepared to add to the two weapons it has now. If the United States wanted Pyongyang to desist, the North Koreans said, Washington should talk directly with them. In response, U.S. President George W. Bush asserted that negotiations should include South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.

Then, early last week, a line in a dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang's propaganda bureau, caught everyone's eye; it said North Korea "will not stick to any particular dialogue format" in discussing its nuclear ambitions.