Wake Up, N. Korea--It’s 1997

If last week’s first round of preliminary talks on a Korean peace agreement was a sign of things to come, the second round, scheduled for Sept. 15, might as well be canceled now. The New York meeting among representatives of the United States, China and the two Koreas, the principal combatants in the Korean War, quickly came to an impasse over North Korea’s familiar insistence that it is prepared to negotiate peace only with the United States. By continuing to refuse to deal directly with South Korea and so recognize its legitimacy, Pyongyang clings to the same perverse political rationale that sent its invading army crashing into South Korea 47 years ago. The world has changed greatly since then, but North Korean thinking remains frozen in time.

In the wake of the preliminary talks, the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang issued a statement that appears to link any shift in its position on peacemaking to increased foreign food shipments to a populace now stalked by famine. The United States, which has been more generous than any other country in providing help, has been careful to treat humanitarian needs and political negotiations as separate issues. By adopting the reverse of this position with its explicit linkage, North Korea seems to be trying to make it as hard as possible for the United States--and South Korea, which has also provided significant food help--to step up donations.

Almost simultaneously, Canadian relief workers just back from North Korea again called attention to the barriers that its officials have raised against international relief efforts. While pleading for help, Pyongyang tries to shroud the full extent of its crisis by refusing to let foreign donors visit areas where malnutrition is most severe. Is there any hope for change? A more conciliatory stance by Pyongyang in last week’s four-party talks surely would have been taken as an encouraging sign of a new realism in North Korea’s thinking and rewarded by the international community. But no hint of moderation appeared. Pyongyang remains as inflexible as ever, and the cost to its people is likely to be enormous.