Can somebody explain to me what the deal is with N Korea?
I have a liberal friend who frequently chastises Bush for not going to the bargaining table with Kim. Of course, I remember what fools Carter and Clinton made of themselves when bargaining with him, but what does Kim want from Bush, and why does Bush refuse to "negotiate?"
Sorry for my ignorance, but thanks.
The United States knows North Korea is a liar and a cheat. They have violated every agreement it has made with the United States since the Korean War.
The 6-way talks are with North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, Japan, and the USA. It allows all parties to have a stake in the success or failure of the talks. It allows all parties to see for themselves the unreasonableness of North Korea and the frustration of their activities. This policy has helped the United States isolate North Korea. It gives more option to the US to put presure on North Korea.
If the US held direct one-on-one talks with North Korea, the Koreans can accuse the US of obstruction and the other regional powers would more likely put presure on the US to appease rather than North Korea. It would isolate the whole nuclear issue as a US-problem rather than a regional problem. If it becomes a US problem, the solution must be a US solution.
Since we already have very limited influence on North Korea, we would likely have only 3 choices in our dealings with North Koera.
1. The Clinton era appeasement strategy. Give North Korea what they want and ignore any violations of the agreement so you don't have to actually try to solve the nuclear issue by option #2.
2. The military option. This would remove North Korea's nuclear capability, but likley isolate the USA with our own allies.
3. Accept a nuclear North Korea. This would likely lead to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan going nuclear. The US does not want a nuclear arms race in Asia.
What does North Koera want?
1. withdrawl of all US forces from South Korea.
2. Free oil, food, and money to keep their country alive
3. Control of South Korea
4. Nuclear weapons that can be used to blackmail the US for more money at any time.
5. withdrawl of all US forces from Japan
China has great influence on North Korea and could probably get them to do anything they want with the threat of economic sanctions. We also convinced China to host the talks so their international standing as a major responsible power would improve. In reality, China probably wants North Korea to keep the US on edge so China itself won't become a primary focus of US concern.
South Korea's involvement is a courtesy. Any dealings with North Korea should include South Korea. Unfortunately, South Korea has tried to increase their position in the meetings by appeasing North Korea at almost every opportunity.
Japan is included because they are our best ally in Asia and the failure to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of North Korea would likley force Japan to go nuclear.
Russia is really a minor player but was invited because North Korea needed 2 countries in their corner (China and Russia) since the USA had 2 countries in our corner (South Korea and Japan). Besides, we didn't want Russia to attempt to force themselves into a "solution" later on and mess things up.