So I guess bilats are OK then
The Bush administration has insisted for years that the only way it will talk with the North Koreans is at multilateral talks involving Japan, South Korea, Russia, China, etc. The North Koreans, in contrast, always wanted bilateral talks with U.S. officials. On the eve of the six-party talks starting again, it looks like the DPRK ...
The Bush administration has insisted for years that the only way it will talk with the North Koreans is at multilateral talks involving Japan, South Korea, Russia, China, etc. The North Koreans, in contrast, always wanted bilateral talks with U.S. officials. On the eve of the six-party talks starting again, it looks like the DPRK got its wish, according to the IHT'sChristopher Buckley:
The Bush administration has insisted for years that the only way it will talk with the North Koreans is at multilateral talks involving Japan, South Korea, Russia, China, etc. The North Koreans, in contrast, always wanted bilateral talks with U.S. officials. On the eve of the six-party talks starting again, it looks like the DPRK got its wish, according to the IHT’sChristopher Buckley:
The United States unexpectedly held talks with North Korea here today, on the eve of critical six-nation negotiations intended to defuse North Korea’s nuclear program. “Right now, this is the time to have these bilateral consultations,” the top American envoy at the talks, Christopher Hill, told reporters here before meeting with the North Korean deputy foreign minister, Kim Kye Gwan. “We are just trying to get acquainted, to review how we see things coming up and compare notes.” Mr. Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia-Pacific affairs, sought to downplay the status of today’s talks, calling them “discussions” that were not part of the “negotiations.” Nonetheless, the rare bilateral encounter between the two countries is likely to fan hopes that this latest round of six-party talks, which start on Tuesday morning and include China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, will make progress toward scaling back North Korea’s nuclear plans. North Korea has long demanded more bilateral contact with the United States as part of any solution. And Mr. Hill’s public acknowledgment of the bilateral meeting is itself a notable departure from Washington’s past policy of acknowledging such contact only in off-the-record background briefings for journalists.
Read the whole thing — there’s some interesting material on how the Chinese view Sino-DPRK relations.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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