6 party talks with Norks yields draft accord

NY Times:

Negotiators for the six nations in the North Korean nuclear disarmament talks are poised to announce a new agreement on Tuesday, but they are first awaiting approval of the draft accord from their respective governments, the chief American negotiator said early Tuesday morning in Beijing.

The American envoy, Christopher R. Hill, said diplomatic teams from the United States, North Korea and the other four participating countries — China, Japan, South Korea and Russia — pushed negotiations past a self-imposed Monday deadline into early Tuesday before finally agreeing on a final text. The six chief envoys are scheduled to reconvene at 10:30 a.m. in Beijing (9:30 p.m. Eastern time on Monday) to learn if each nation has approved the deal.

The agreement is expected to include some significant concessions by the North Koreans, although they did not agree to give up their existing nuclear weapons.

Mr. Hill declined to offer any specifics about the new accord until approval was assured. But he suggested that the pending agreement was essentially the same as the draft proposal that has been under discussion for the past five days — except for revisions in a single paragraph. That paragraph presumably has focused on the question of energy assistance for North Korea. The North Koreans’ demand for huge, upfront shipments of fuel oil and electricity had threatened to scuttle the talks.

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The fate of the deal appears to rest with the North Korean delegation’s winning approval from the country’s authoritarian leader, Kim Jong-il. The deal is expected to require North Korea to close and seal its main nuclear reactor within six weeks and also allow international nuclear inspectors into the country for the first time in more than four years. North Korea would receive energy and economic assistance, as well as security guarantees, but the timetable for these rewards remained unclear.

North Korea had nearly scuttled the negotiations by insisting on a huge energy aid package, including front-loaded temporary shipments of fuel oil. Various reports suggested that North Korea had demanded two million tons of heavy fuel oil and two million kilowatts of electricity in exchange for its approval of any new agreement.

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This agreement is bad news for the people of North Korea who must continue to suffer under one of the most despotic governments in the world. They are the real losers in a deal that will prop up a hideously bad government. The extortion that the US, South Korea and Japan will have to pay may be less than it would cost to militarily defeat these thugs, but the morality of allowing them to continue to starve their people to pay or a ridiculously large army is questionable at best.

The agreement is also a clear loss also for the Democrats who have insisted that the US drop the six party talks in favor of the type of failed agreement the Clinton administration got. But, haven been proven wrong has never stopped Democrats from avoiding responsibility for their bad ideas. Have they ever apologized for opposing welfare reform? How about their failed lawfare approach to terrorism in the 90's?

Another potential loser in this deal is Iran which finds itself even more isolated and without a strategic partner. There is no mention of what will happen to the Norks missile business.

It will be interesting to see what will happen to their stockpile of fizzling nukes.

The Japanese have said they will not fork over any extorion until all of Japan's kidnapped citizens are accounted for.