Responding to an uncharacteristically polite request from North Korea calling for the negotiation of a Korean War peace agreement, albeit along with the removal of sanctions in advance of any resumption of the Six-Party Talks, the U.S. moved to reiterate its position in Monday’s State Department daily briefing, saying that while North Korea will not accrue any benefits just for returning to the Six-Party Talks, were it to start taking steps towards meeting its obligations under the 2005 joint statement then nothing would be out of the question.
“The key here is that North Korea has to come back to us, say yes, come back to the Six-Party process, start working on… its obligations under the… joint statement, and then we are perfectly willing to have other kinds of discussions,” spokesman Philip Crowley explained to reporters.
But, he went on, “We’ve made clear, going back several months, we’re not going to pay North Korea for coming back to the Six-Party process.”
However, it is now clear that the U.S. is more predisposed towards balancing the obligations of the parties to the joint statement than it has been in the past, and that the Obama government is prepared to discuss a peace agreement before North Korea has reached the stage of “complete and verifiable denuclearization” that has dominated the diplomatic landscape over recent years.
“We want them back in the Six-Party process. We want to see them take affirmative steps towards denuclearization,” Crowley repeated, “But once they’re back within the process, once we have confidence that they’re meeting their obligations, then a wide range of other possible discussions open up.”
