DPRK: Deal made on nuclear disclosure

posted at 9:06 am on April 9, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Pyongyang has announced that the DPRK and the US have reached a deal on complete disclosure of North Korea’s nuclear activities. Details from the BBC flash report are meager, but Kim Jong-Il apparently got a deal for “political compensation” that he liked:

A deal has been reached on what North Korea will receive from the US in exchange for disclosing its nuclear activities, Pyongyang says.

Negotiators from the two countries have reached consensus on US political compensation for the declaration, North Korea’s foreign ministry said.

Kim has wanted a normalization of relations with the US and Japan for a long time, as well as an end to economic sanctions. The Bush administration has held off on all of these until Kim coughed up all of his nuclear efforts — including any proliferation the DPRK conducted. Kim must have received at least some of these in exchange for trading in his most valuable chit in the negotiation process.

This could have some interesting implications for China. The Bush administration has relied on China to lean heavily on Kim during the six-nation talks. The US will need China to help enforce the details of any agreement, since they have the most influence on their client state. Will this mean that Bush will make an appearance at the Beijing Games when Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel busy themselves with an opening-ceremonies boycott? Or will Bush feel freer to join Sarkozy and Merkel if the Korean crisis reaches a clear and favorable resolution?

I’ll update this as more details arise.

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