After nearly two years of silence, the United States and North Korea are about to resume diplomatic discussions. Representatives from the two govEernments will meet this week in Beijing to discuss North Korea's nuclear-weapons program and, eventually, the entire range of relations between the two counEtries. These discussions are fraught with difficulty, not least because of the vital concerns they address. They require tact and a deftness that neither government has shown much aptiEtude for or inclination toward. Compounding the situation is the absence of parties that are critical to any eventual deal: South Korea and Japan. The negotiations will strain and could rupEture trilateral relations.

Relations between the U.S. and North Korea have never been good, but they have been spiraling down ever since the U.S. acEcused North Korea of pursuing a clandestine nuclear-weapons program last October. The U.S., which was allegedly prepared to offer North Korea a "grand bargain," demanded that the Pyongyang end the program as a condition of further discusEsions. Instead, North Korea turned to brinkmanship to force the U.S. to the negotiating table. Harsh rhetoric, missile tests and the withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty all followed in short order.

North Korea's demand for talks with the U.S. has appealed to Northeast Asian governments rattled by the prospect of war in their neighborhood. The U.S. counter that North Korean nucleEar proliferation is a multilateral problem that demands an inEternational solution, while true, has been less convincing. For South Korea and Japan the dilemma is acute, as North Korea has only been interested in bilateral talks Ewhich effectively would split the U.S. from its allies and the two nations that have a vital stake in any outcome.