Movement in US-North Korea talks?

The US envoy to the six-power talks, US Asst. Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said today a Chinese proposal was a positive step. Further negotiations will take place tomorrow.

I hope the talks do move forward and progress is made. However I remain deeply skeptical. First because Kim il-Jung has proved in the past that he can't be trusted to uphold the North Korean end of any agreements. This doesn't just relate to the country's agreement with the US 10 years ago, but to the country's nasty habit of not paying it's creditors. That's one of the reasons the country is always short of food. Who is going to sell to a country who won't pay the bill.

Secondly, NK is able to keep a civilian nuclear program. What's to prevent them from converting it to military use? The North has done it before.

Third is the reason why NK built a nuclear program in the first place. That was to make the US think twice before launching an attack against North Korea. The Kim regime is illegitimate as are all totatalitarian regimes. They stay in power by force, not the ballot box. Leaders such as Kim il-Jung and his father Kim il-Sung know they are or were illegitimate, if the people were given a chance they would no longer have power. Therefore the Kims are very insecure, they need to bully not only their own people but those outside the DPRK.

It's bravado and posturing. Kim wants the US to see him having the threat of nuking Seoul, Japan or the west coast of the US. At the same time he can't be dumb enough to know if he used the option, what the response would be. The mindset in Pyongyang won't change, unless the Kim family no longer rules.

Lastly Hill's words may be just diplomatic double talk. The US just being polite before rejecting China's proposal. Diplomats do this all the time.

So I feel negotiations and agreements made are just putting off the inevitable. Which is probably well and good, since a war on the Korean peninsula will be a bloodbath.

Carnival/Open Post- Wizbang and Bright & Early

Bejiing- The main U.S. envoy to North Korea nuclear talks said Sunday a new Chinese proposal allowing the North to keep its civilian nuclear program after disarming was a positive step, and the six nations negotiating the draft would discuss it Monday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the negotiations aimed at persuading the North to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions would end Monday whether an agreement was reached or not.

"It's a good draft for all concerned, and I think it's especially a really great opportunity for" North Korea, Hill said.

Still, he declined to speculate about the outcome of the talks, saying only that negotiations were continuing and all sides would meet Monday morning to respond to the Chinese proposal.

When asked if there could be an agreement Monday, Hill answered: "I hope so."
"I think the agreement makes a lot of sense," he said.

Hill did not reveal any specifics of the draft statement, which the main Russian envoy has said acknowledges the North's right to a peaceful nuclear program after it disarms. Washington has previously rejected allowing Pyongyang any nuclear program, saying its history relentlessly pursuing a nuclear bomb means it can't be trusted.

"The draft proposed by China was an effort to breach remaining differences," Hill said. He called the proposal "a good effort to try to bridge the remaining differences, which I believe are difficult but certainly not insurmountable."

North and South Korea, Japan, the U.S., China and Russia are all parties to the talks.