The official U.S. negotiating position for the upcoming North Korean peace talks in Beijing was recently laid out by the top U.S. negotiator, a respected man of peace. But details of the position may actually be a prescription for war. This is alarming.
At a little-noticed conference earlier this month in Washington, James Kelly, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, outlined the American position in detail. In effect, it requires North Korea to seek "redemption" (yes, that was the word used) and capitulate to the Bush administration's demand to dismantle its nuclear program without conditions.
On one level, this is a lovely idea. North Korea is obviously no prize, its communist ruling elite is practically a textbook case on bad government. Worse yet -- morally and politically for the region -- has been its clandestine and aggressive sales on the international black market of arms and technology so as to satiate the appetites and selfish needs of the politico-military elite even as the average North Korean suffers.