Posted on: Friday, March 5, 2004

EDITORIAL
More urgency needed in North Korea talks

Negotiating with the North Koreans is an affliction we wouldn't wish on our most annoying in-law. Their diplomats are in your face and ever unsure of their marching orders from their Dear Leader.

Nevertheless, negotiating a nuclear-free Korean peninsula is one of the most urgent missions on the Bush administration's plate, and we wish they'd act like it.

Time is certainly not on our side. We know beyond doubt that the North Koreans have enough plutonium to make a half-dozen nuclear weapons.

North Korea seems to think its ability to pose a nuclear threat keeps it from sharing the fate of Iraq. That is why Pyongyang says it is unwilling to surrender that ability unilaterally, as the Bush administration demands. North Korea says it is willing to trade verifiable dismantlement of that threat for security assurances plus needed economic aid.

To say that trust is always an issue with North Korea is to put it mildly.

Yet with the plutonium removed from North Korea and international inspectors back in place, Northeast Asia is sure to be a better place. That's where our focus should be.

Does North Korea have a separate uranium-enrichment track? While we know it obtained nuclear technology from Pakistan, given the track record of U.S. intelligence in evaluating the nuclear capabilities of Iraq, it seems absurd to make the uranium issue a deal-killer in the so-far unproductive talks in Beijing.

What's keeping the talks from success? To the frustration of Bush's negotiating partners — Japan, South Korea, Russia and host China — it's clear that no progress is possible until after the U.S. election.

In part, this could amount to stalling on the part of North Koreans, who may hope against hope for a better deal under a new president.

By the same token, Bush is firmly on record as refusing to be seen as rewarding North Korea for giving up its nuclear ambitions. So any compromise offered by Bush would be criticized, either by Bush's "neo-conservative" constituency as a sell-out, or by his Democratic presidential opponent as a flip-flop.

What's not clear is how much closer to being able to deliver nuclear weapons North Korea will be by November. This matter has festered for far too long. The time to resolve it is now.