Fed: Tiny signs of hope out of inscrutable Pyongyang

AAP General News (Australia)
02-13-2004
Fed: Tiny signs of hope out of inscrutable Pyongyang

By Don Woolford

CANBERRA, Feb 13 AAP - Australian diplomats have returned from Pyongyang cautiously
confident that the secretive and inscrutable regime may be edging towards resolving the
North Korean nuclear crisis.

Officials said today they were encouraged by North Korea's decision to return to six-nation
talks, which they saw as a continuing process.

"But the issue has been going on for a long time," an official said.

"Not terribly much has developed and we can't expect rapid progress."

The official's description of the talks at the beginning of February gives some flavour
of the smoke-and-mirror nature of dealing with the regime.

The visit and some of the timings were odd.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer only decided in mid-January to send a delegation,
led by the head of his department's North Asia division, Murray McLean.

With surprising speed, Pyongyang took only two days to agree.

The delegation's main brief was to urge North Korea to return to the six-party talks
which comprise the US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea on the one hand and North
Korea on the other.

A first meeting was held in Beijing last August.

Australia doesn't see itself as a first tier player in the issue and its diplomats
were not going to actually negotiate.

But it believed it might have some influence, partly because it's one of the few countries
in the region with diplomatic relations with North Korea, even if these have been largely
frozen since the latest crisis was precipitated when Pyongyang pulled out of the Nuclear
non-Proliferation Treaty and expelled International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors
in January last year.

The official said that while the other five nations were consulted before the visit,
it was Australia's decision to go.

But once there, the delegation was told North Korea had already decided to resume the talks.

It told the US on the night the Australians arrived that they would return to the table
in Beijing on February 25.

On the other hand, the North Koreans told the delegation, knowing the Australians were
coming to urge a resumption was a factor in their decision.

"I wouldn't want to characterise ourselves as being the key delegation that cracked
it open," the official said.

The delegation had three sessions with vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-Il and one with
Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun -- good access, even if the discussions were sometimes circular.

The North Koreans insisted they were committed to renouncing nuclear weapons, but only
in exchange for the US dropping its "hostile" policy. The Australians replied that the
US had continually said it wasn't hostile and didn't intend to invade.

Which the North Koreans knew perfectly well anyway.

They said they wanted a security guarantee from the US, but were vague about detail.

They "indicated they were open" to the need to verify the dismantling of their nuclear
programs. On the one hand, maybe they'd let US weapons inspectors in; on the other, maybe
IAEA inspectors.

The Australians specifically asked several times if they had nuclear weapons. It was
the same reply each time: "No confirm, no deny."

"I think they want a deal," the official concluded.

"They want a deal on their own terms, which are pretty outrageous in the sense they
want the world to thank them for shutting down a nuclear program by giving cast iron security
guarantees and massive energy and economic assistance."

So how much of the North Korean stance is bluff?

"The North Koreans have always used bluff as a tactic in negotiations," the official said.

"I suppose a lot of countries use it, but they are particular masters.

"On the other hand, their concerns are real."

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KEYWORD: KOREA AUST

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