| US will pay Kim Jong Il with Russian fuel oil Yesterday, the third round of six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue opened in Beijing, in which delegations from both Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan are participating. Previous meetings of the “six” were held in the Chinese capital in August 2003 and February of this year, but their only outcome was the expression of a common desire to continue the search for an agreement.
At the end of the first day of negotiations, which will continue until Saturday, the head of the Russian delegation, Ambassador at Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Alekseev, said with a degree of optimism: “Building material is beginning to accumulate, from which either at the end of the third round of negotiations, or subsequently, it is possible to build a fairly strong foundation to achieve the ultimate goal - ensuring a nuclear-free status of the Korean Peninsula." The head of the US delegation, James Kelly, confirmed that the Americans are “ready for a serious discussion” and will make a new proposal to Pyongyang.
Kelly did not go into detail, but on the day the Beijing meeting began, an article appeared in the New York Times outlining the essence of the American initiative. This is “a new but highly conditional set of incentives for abandoning the nuclear program,” something similar “was offered to Libya last year.” George Bush took a tough stance against Pyongyang, and experts predicted that American initiatives would appear only after the US presidential elections. Under pressure from the “six” partners and critics within the United States, the White House agreed to a concession - the delivery of fuel oil to North Korea will begin immediately after Kim Jong Il promises to end the nuclear program. Previously, the United States believed it was possible to resume the supply of fuel, interrupted 18 months ago, only after the complete dismantling of Pyongyang’s nuclear machine.
The US is giving Kim Jong Il only three months to prepare for nuclear disarmament, otherwise supplies will be interrupted. In addition, as the New York Times reports, the United States will not supply fuel oil to the DPRK and will entrust this mission to China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. The continuation of fuel supplies and the fate of negotiations on lifting American sanctions from the DPRK will depend on the admission of foreign inspectors into the country, the dismantling of nuclear facilities and their removal outside the DPRK, as was the case with Libya.
The United States wants to avoid a repeat of the situation in 1994, when President Clinton promised assistance to the DPRK in exchange for freezing its nuclear program. Bush believes that the North Koreans shamelessly deceived the Americans and demands the irrevocable destruction of the DPRK's nuclear industry. However, Kim Jong Il wants to keep a bargaining chip, and the demand to open the country to American inspectors is hardly acceptable to him. Most likely, the agreement will be postponed again - North Korea needs fuel oil not in the summer, but in the winter, which will begin just after the presidential elections in the United States. Alexander LOMANOV |
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