The six-nation talks, aimed at finding a negotiated solution to halting North Korea's nuclear development, are scheduled to resume in Beijing on Feb. 25 after a six-month interlude. Since the resumption of the talks has been struggling to make headway along a slippery road, we would like to hope that some progress could be made. But it appears that the wide schism remaining between the United States and North Korea offers little prospect that the talks will advance much.
North Korea has declared that if the U.S. lifts its sanctions against Pyongyang and removes its designation of North Korea as a terrorist-supporting state, then it is prepared to freeze its nuclear program, including development of the peaceful use of nuclear energy. But Washington has countered that a pledge to freeze is not in the cards and that, before anything else, North Korea must scrap its entire nuclear program in a verifiable and irreversible manner.
A North Korean freeze of its nuclear program was decided 10 years ago in a framework agreement with the U.S. As a result, Pyongyang did halt the operation of its graphite-moderated reactors. But then it resumed operating them last year. The basic stance of the U.S., therefore, is that it can no longer offer any compensation to North Korea for merely saying once again that it is going to freeze its nuclear program.