Tuesday, December 17, 2002
JAPAN BROUGHT ON BOARD? (NYT; free registration required)
A few months ago the DPRK seemed poised on the brink of a huge diplomatic breakthrough with Japan, a move which had the potential of splitting the U.S.-Japan-ROK alliance wide open over the issue of how to deal with North Korea. Now all that is nothing more than a might-have-been. Is this what Kim Jong Il and company really want?
UPDATE: The North Koreans can't be happy about this either.
The United States won a commitment from Japan today to continue taking a hard line toward North Korea that would bar any bargaining or talk of economic incentives until the government in Pyongyang agreed to shut its nuclear weapons program.
Taking a break from their meeting at the State Department with Japan's senior Defense and Foreign Ministry officials, both Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz repeated the administration's policy of last week, that it was up to North Korea to ease tensions in the region.
A few months ago the DPRK seemed poised on the brink of a huge diplomatic breakthrough with Japan, a move which had the potential of splitting the U.S.-Japan-ROK alliance wide open over the issue of how to deal with North Korea. Now all that is nothing more than a might-have-been. Is this what Kim Jong Il and company really want?
UPDATE: The North Koreans can't be happy about this either.
