North Korea Returns to Nuclear Talks

Interesting things to note:

1. China set up the meetings that led to the breakthrough on talks. It is clearly taking a forceful, proactive approach to these negotiations. China has apparently reportedly even withheld diesel and heating fuel from North Korea in September.
2. The arrangement that led to the talks was three-way talks between the United States, North Korea, and China in Beijing.
3. The North Koreans are being hurt by American action against their money-laundering activities, as reflected by the priority the North Koreans placed on having U.S. Treasury action against a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, on the agenda of nuclear talks. (I think this also reveals the North Koreans' goals in exploding their nuclear device). The bank, which has previously been in the news, purportedly holds the Kim family's bank accounts and had placed North Korean counterfeited cash in circulation.

Politicians' and diplomats’ expectations for discussions to end North Korea’s nuclear programs are low. As David Straub, a former U.S. diplomat involved in earlier discussions stated:

"[B]oth [the United States and North Korea] will almost certainly take even tougher lines."

Straub stated that the U.S. and North Korea need to change negotiating positions, and Democrats say that the U.S. needs to negotiate directly with North Korea.

Today's Washington Post editorial page warns that this supposed breakthrough could simply allow the Chinese and the North Koreans to alleviate pressure on the North Korean regime and for China to control its wayward client while North Korea gives up nothing.

The problem is that this is always true when negotiating with the North Koreans. But if our only real choice is to negotiate, the editorial is correct to place the onus for continued movement by the North Koreans on China. They made these talks happen, and they should be the focus of American pressure to see that they succeed.