HONG KONG -- The second round of the six-party talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear weapons program went off relatively well even though there was no breakthrough. While the United States and North Korea may not agree on much, both agreed that China had done an excellent job as host and mediator.
Clearly, Pyongyang and Washington are still far apart -- so far, indeed, that the two could not agree on a joint statement at the end of the talks, forcing China to issue a "chairman's statement" instead and point to an "extreme lack of trust."
The tone of these talks was clearly different from the last round. There were no threats by North Korea to conduct a nuclear test or to take other action that would merely exacerbate the situation. The U.S. stuck to its position of not providing aid or a security guarantee to North Korea until after the "complete, verifiable and irreversible" dismantling of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.