North Korean talks
offer no quick fix
Multilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear program next week are not expected to bring a quick resolution, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea indicated yesterday in Honolulu.
"We don't enter into talks without some degree of hope and optimism that they will succeed," U.S. Ambassador Thomas Hubbard said. "But I don't think that we can expect early, quick results."
Hubbard was attending the final sessions of a three-day seminar at the East-West Center on U.S. policy in Asia and the Pacific. The event comes about a week before the talks.
The talks will be held Aug. 27-29 in Beijing between North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
The ambassador said next week's discussions are important because they fully engage China and Russia, countries that stayed largely on the sidelines of previous talks.
"We have an opportunity to get all of those countries that have the deepest interest in the resolution of the North Korean nuclear problem all in the same room at the same time," Hubbard said.
One item Hubbard seemed to indicate was not up for discussion is America's issuance of a nonaggression treaty to North Korea. The communist nation has insisted on the pact for more than a year, but the Bush administration has refused.
"The main issue of these talks is whether North Korea will change its stance, whether North Korea is prepared to abandon its nuclear weapons programs," Hubbard said. "If North Korea is prepared to do that, there should be some way of formulating our nonaggressive intent."
Hubbard said the summit is the beginning of a long-term process.
