[imText1]Robert Einhorn, former U.S. Department of State’s Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Nonproliferation, said, “North Korea will try to preserve its nuclear security for a long time and the other five nations will walk a difficult road at the six party talks.”
Former Assistant Secretary predicted at the keynote presentation, “Six Party Talks Seeking a Nuclear-Free Korea,” at the 2007 Seoul-Washington Forum, jointly sponsored by the Sejong Institute and the Brookings Institution, “North Korea is probably seeking both nuclear preservation and economic support.”
According to Assistant Secretary Einhorn, North Korea will continuously export nuclear weapons and receive economic support by making the promise of not exporting them. It will investigate normalized relations with the U.S. or Japan while preserving a fixed amount of nuclear weapons.
He added, “We have to induce North Korea to walk the path of denuclearization by making it realize that the compensation for denuclearization will be much bigger. Five nations of the six party talks will provide strong rewards if North Korea abandons its nuclear weapons and, if North Korea preserves its weapons, North Korea’s will to abandon nuclear weapons can be tested through their agreement to a strong means of discipline or sanctions.”
He said, “From the February 13 agreement until now, the development of North Korean nuclear weapons has not been an encouraging situation. It is possible to control North Korea through a relatively inexpensive method of the February 13 agreement. We have to induce North Korea’s denuclearization through a step-by-step approach via the six party talks.”
James Kelly, “The U.S. has not pursued North Korea’s political shift.”
Baek Hwak Soon, the Senior Researcher at the Sejong Institute, first viewed as problematic the U.S.’ threatening talks, saying “U.S. hardliners pursued a change in North Korea, which resulted in the North Korean nuclear problem. The U.S. used North Korea’s nuclear problem to build its own missile defense setup.”
He said, “In order to resolve the North’s nuclear problem, there should be a cease-fire to work out the organizational problem that is confronting the U.S. and North Korea.”
Related to this, James Kelly, former U.S. State Department’s Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, stated, “Seeing the North Korean nuclear problem only as a problem between the U.S. and North Korea and not feeling any threat from the nuclear problem is a death warrant and a grave mistake for South Koreans.”
“While the American neo-cons and hardliners pursued the policy of shifting North Korea, both U.S. and North Korea’s distrust and confrontation reached their peak,” proposed Im Dong Won, former minister at the Reunification Bureau. In response, former Assistant Secretary Kelly said, “The U.S. has not adopted the policy of North Korea’s systematic shift.”
Kelly said, “There are no other ways to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, besides the six party talks. The U.S. has to show patience and flexibility and the North Korea and has to solve the problem through negotiations so that international society cannot acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear country.”
The Seoul-Washington Forum, as a channel of dialogue for citizens as well as U.S. and Korea’s experts in the foreign security sphere, has taken place annually, alternating between the two countries, and is sponsored by the Sejong Institute and the U.S. Brookings Institution.
