Importance of Six-Party Talks
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No wonder, they have been trying to destabilize the DPRK after the Cheonan incident to "denuclearize the Korean Peninsula once and for all". Perhaps that's the reason why the US and the ROK have been reluctant to return to the talks and why the DPRK's satellite launch and nuclear experiment have been less important for them than the handover of power in Pyongyang.
But no matter what the US, the ROK and Japan do, the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue cannot be resolved without the Six-Party Talks. To accelerate the process of denuclearization, all the six parties have to return to the table and the US, the ROK and Japan have to withdraw their preconditions. At best, the trio can insist on an inspection of the DPRK's nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency after the resumption of the talks.
The Barack Obama administration has appealed for global cooperation, claiming to have begun a new era of the US relationship with other countries. Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said diplomacy was one of the two cornerstones of Washington's "global leadership".
Yet the US has failed to justify its so-called global leadership. It's time the US did something really constructive for peace and stability. It can start by creating the right conditions for holding the Six-Party Talks.
The ROK, on its part, should realize the connection between the Cheonan incident and the tension on the peninsula, take interest in maintaining peace in Northeast Asia and stop flexing its muscles.
The DPRK should give up its preconditions, too. It should not insist that the US should lift its sanctions and sign a peace treaty with it before it returns to the talks.
Different parties have different understandings of the peaceful mechanism. At times, they clash over issues like how to establish such a mechanism or how to hold talks, making it more difficult to reach an agreement. The futile talks among China, the DPRK, the US and the ROK over the past two years show that getting two parties to sign a peace treaty requires long-term efforts.
Lifting of sanctions, too, is not a short-term mission. The financial sanctions against the DPRK did not prevent the Statement of Principles from being issued on Sept 19, 2005. Likewise, the sanctions against the DPRK cannot stop it from making the most from denuclearization and relaxation of tensions on the peninsula.
Therefore, the DPRK should take concrete actions to reduce the anxiety of the US, the ROK and Japan and create conditions necessary for economic development and improvement of its people's livelihood.
There are many problems to be discussed. What are the major issues to be negotiated once the Six-Party Talks resume? How can the process of denuclearization be carried out without harming the DPRK's security? All these problems call for serious and thorough discussions. That's why the main task of the six countries now is to join hands to draw up a blueprint for the denuclearization of the peninsula.
The author is a research scholar in US studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
