Written Commitment
South Korea, Japan, and the US are demanding a written commitment from North Korea to abandon their nuclear weapons program:
A diplomatic source who participated in talks between the three nations said the trio felt the process discussed up to the third round of talks — a preliminary freeze followed by dismantlement ? was no longer meaningful. He said North Korea must announce a strategic decision to unconditionally dismantle its nuclear program.
The three countries will not be content with vague reference to “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula†or a preliminary freeze, and Washington and Tokyo have threatened to stop the talks and impose sanctions if no written undertaking is forthcoming. A Korean official said Sunday the goal of the six-party talks was “the dismantling of the North Korean nuclear program†and the sole aim of the fourth round to confirm this principle in writing.
North Korea in turn wants a security guarantee in writing that they will not be attacked. I think both written guarantees are fair but the written agreement with North Korea means nothing if it cannot be verified.
I have said this before, but the North Koreans just want a nice face saving deal that gives them the free food, money, and the oil they need to keep the regime going plus have enough flexibility in the agreement to be able to covertly hide their weapons program.
In turn they will keep quiet and give the appearance of good behavior to the international community, all the foreign diplomats can pat each other on the back about what a great job they did, heck maybe somebody can even get a Nobel Peace Prize out of this like Kim Dae Jung did back in 2000. All the while the North Koreans will be sitting back enjoying their spoils, their people still starving, make no progress on human rights, and continue to covertly make nuclear weapons.
A written agreement means nothing if it cannot be verified.
Many people would agree with you. In fact, most Japanese people don’t trust Kim Jon Il not at all, though South Koreans look admiring him. However, what the other options do we have, besides this crap (six party talks)?
1. Sending this issue to the UN security council won’t work, since either the Comunist China or Russia would cast a veto.
2. Economic sanctions won’t work, since there is a big leaking pipe up north.
3. The US goverment nor citizens won’t support to attack against North Korea using regular military forces. (sorry, we Japanese cannot help this attack, since our military forces are not equipped to do so, in addition to the well-known constitution article nine regulation). US will lose too many GI lives and get a wasteland and poor and hostile people in turn.
Another risk: many South Koreans (not only ROK Army) will attack the US military forces from their back.
4. Although North Korea is not a popular country, dropping nukes is out of consideration. You cannot commit the ethnic cleansing.
So, the international community will reluctantly agree with the security garantee without any validation method.
After that? we will see the same game again until the second Korean war will rise anyway in the near future.