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02/25/2004 Archived Entry: "U.S. Lays Its Cards on the Table for N. Korea"

Posted by steve @ 02:30 AM EST [Link]

I'M NOT GOING TO MAKE ANY JOKES ABOUT 'SIX-WAYS': A six way conference opened this morning over the issue of North Korea, brokered -- no less -- by China.

The United States stood fast, calling for the irreversible, verifiable dismantling of North Korea's plutonium and uranium weapons programs and repeating that it did not intend to attack a country it branded part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and pre-war Iraq.

After half a year of shuttle diplomacy, delegates from North and South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan shook hands before taking their places at a hexagonal table in a guarded guesthouse for the second such meeting brokered by China.

China swiftly took on the role of honest broker.

"As the talks deepen, we will face more difficulties and meet more challenges. The talks aim to enlarge the consensus, not to highlight the differences, to settle problems, not to escalate conflict," said Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

I'm also not going to make any jokes about China as "honest broker." North Korea acts the way it does because China permits it to do so. If they wanted the situation resolved, it would have happened already.

Read on.