Wednesday, February 28, 2007

The U.S. and N. Korea are working for full diplomatic relations

North Korea's top nuclear negotiator and vice minister of foreign affairs Kim Kye-gwan is on his way to the U.S. for talks on issues that would include the first steps toward the normalization of diplomatic relations, according to a State Department official. For details, read this article.

This is obviously a further step after the six-party talks held earlier this month in Beijing. Despite some pundits' opinion that the U.S. had a bad deal in the talks, in my view, approachment is much better than confrontation.

7 comments:

Sean said...

I think this is a good idea - assuming we never actually follow through with it and hold it out as bait. I also hear that North Korea is insisting that it be removed from the Terrorist State list. Doing so would make the list meaningless, and I can't imagine that it would be help anyone's political career.

Eric said...

I would argue the case that taking North Korea off the List of State Sponsors of Terrorism might be a reasonable compromise in exchange for additional nuclear protocols. I dont think we have connected them to a terrorist attack since the airline bombing.

We DO maintain other lists that they might be on (WMD proliferation states, ballistic missile proliferation states, special nuclear materiel potential proliferator states, US currency counterfeitors, narcotics trafficking, etc), so they wouldn't be exonerated to the world of all evil doing or anything by taking them off the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

Sean said...

Was the airline bombing before or after the Rangoon incident where they tried to wipe out the entire Korean cabinet? I think you make a reasonable suggestion, but, I don't know, for me, I think a state should be removed from the list if they show signs of improvement. But since those attacks, they've gone on to threaten the world with nuclear destruction. Maybe we could take them off the sponsor of terrorism list and place them on a new list called "States that have blackmailed the world with nuclear holocaust."

Eric said...

Hear hear Sean. Hear. Hear.

diana said...

Sean, I think sometimes you just have to pay a price to make the world better, and the price is often high.

Sean said...

I don't disagree with you, Diana. But I don't think that this will make the world "better" as you say. I realize that I'm very skeptical when it comes to North Korea, but i just don't think that we should approach it with a "no matter the cost" mindset.

diana said...

So, Sean, you mean N. Korea is hopeless?