DPRK Forum

This is absolutely no surprise, and Richardson is proven right once again:

North Korea’s chief nuclear envoy warns negotiations on ending his country’s nuclear programs are entering a crucial stage that could undo four years of diplomatic effort. As VOA’s Heda Bayron reports from our Asia News Center in Hong Kong, his comments come ahead of the resumption of the six-nation nuclear talks.
…
He told reporters at the Beijing airport that if North Korea, the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia fail to agree on the details of the process, it could grind to a halt.

But Kim says if the United States and other countries meet their commitments, North Korea will do the same as well.

The article was not clear, and suspected it was about Syria, and sure enough that’s what it was:

Pyongyang’s top nuclear envoy denounced reports of North Korean nuclear assistance to Syria as baseless allegations “fabricated by lunatics” as he arrived Tuesday for talks with Chinese officials.

Following his arrival in Beijing, Kim Kye Gwan said the latest round of six-nation talks on ending the North’s nuclear programs could be a make-or-break occasion.

Ahhh, so that’s the rub. Kim is not going to give up his nukes, and now, North Korea talks about the U.S. helping Israel. When in the world has North Korea ever cared about Israel? Maybe they have, and as others have pointed out, North Korea has been chums with Syria for a while. Yes, there is no proof if North Korea is helping Syria with Nuclear material or technology, but it does not seem the point right now. At the least, it is a nice disengagement ploy, which is very Kim Jong Il.

So all of this work may be for naught, and that may mean Roh’s dreams of a summit may be in the drain, but that does not mean anything either. Remember the drinking game? It will most likely happen anyway as a feel good meeting and nothing will be done. Nice smiles will be exchanged, some words will be exchanged, but nothing about nukes or human rights will be discussed because Kim Jong Il does not like to be criticized. In the meantime, Kim plays his game that has worked all this time, and looks like it may work again.

Now what about that terror list removal? I would wait on that (Err, strike that), but North Korea wants its cake and have it all for themselves (Update: See DPRK Studies):

“We are dealing with those issues but there has been no decision made,” Hill said of removing North Korea from the blacklist.

“Obviously, this is something the DPRK very much wants but we’ve made it very clear it depends on further denuclearisation,” Hill said, referring to the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Again, very North Korea. They want to be asshats, disengage, cozy with Syria, hang with the holocaust denier (and why not? The DPRK are the experts on gulags that would make Hitler proud), and never hold the end of the deal. And what happened? Goodies were sent.

Ugh, I do not see this going anywhere.