One thing is very clear after last week's round of six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis: No one wants the negotiations to fail. While that has spurred diplomacy to solve the problem, it also means that "progress" could become illusory. Apparently, agreement to continue working-level discussions is now sufficient to declare victory. Yet the basic issues dividing the key parties remain. North Korea refuses to acknowledge a clandestine nuclear program and, without taking that step, assistance and diplomatic normalization are impossible. Stalemate has serious consequences, however: it allows North Korea to continue secret efforts to build a bomb. Time works for Pyongyang.
Four days of talks in Beijing last week marked the second round of six-party negotiations. No one seriously expected a breakthrough. Prior to the meetings, all six governments dampened expectations to the point where merely concluding as scheduled would constitute a victory for diplomacy. Some fretted that the talks might be scuttled if Japan raised the issue of its abductees, others worried that U.S. insistence that North Korea had a secret enriched uranium program -- which Pyongyang denies -- would prompt a walkout.
Neither happened. North Korea has learned that it cannot afford to appear unreasonable. Its negotiators have toned down the rhetoric and stressed their country's readiness to find a diplomatic solution. The appearance of flexibility is critical; that puts the burden on the U.S. to do the same and prevents the creation of a five-party consensus that holds Pyongyang responsible for any lack of progress.