The Asianist

Flash news from Korea Times:

The six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, which took a three-week recess on Aug. 7, will likely resume on Sept. 2, China’s top delegate to the negotiation reportedly said in Japan Friday.

But South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the date has not been set.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei was quoted by a Japanese political party official as saying that the participating countries _ the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan _ are expected to reconvene on Sept. 2.

"We are now considering resuming the talks on Sept. 2 in consultation with the Japanese side," Kyodo News Agency quoted Wu as saying. "Our staffers are now talking with the U.S. side."

The Jiji Press, however, reported a conflicting story, quoting Wu as saying that the date he announced was his "personal idea."...

The hottest issue in the fourth round of the talks, which began July 26, was triggered by Pyongyang’s hope to retain nuclear facilities for civilian energy needs in such fields as agriculture and medical science.

I am not optimistic that the resumption of the talks would go any better than it did before. I am certainly opposed to the notion that Pyongyang ought to be allowed to keep a "civilian" nuclear program for "agriculture and medicine."

North Korea's problems in food and medicine -- and indeed in just about everything else -- are very dire, but everyone knows that the United States, South Korea, Japan and even Europe would flood North Korea with aid and investment, if North Korea simply renounced any nuclear program and took real stept to implement it.

Instead, North Korea's desire to seek a "civilian" nuclear program appears to be nothing more than yet another ploy to keep a secret military nuclear program and to continue to engage in what academics call "rent-seeking behavior" (normal folks call that "blackmail").