N Korea talks close to collapse

[Eugene]

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Thursday, 22 March 2007, 06:59 GMT

Talks on North Korea's nuclear programme appear to have broken down after
its chief negotiator went to Beijing airport apparently to fly home.

The move came after delegates at the six-nation talks made no progress.

The talks have stalled over the North's refusal to discuss a deal to disable
its nuclear facilities until it reclaims $25m held in a Macau bank.

Despite the setback, delegates still hope the North will abide by the deal,
which was agreed last month.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6478299.stm

[Eagle_Eye]

1. When our next Democratic President takes office in 2009

They will appoint former President Clinton as special Ambassador to solve this problem.
It should take less than a year for President Clinton to put the issue to rest.

[BayCityProgressive]

7. why would CLinton help?

he didn't follow through on his part of the deal in the 90's and neither did they.

[pampango]

2. George, let 'em have their $25 million back.

Kim must not want to negotiate, if this is a stumbling block. He is probably reaching for ways to get the Chinese off his back, since they are the only ones who can really put pressure on him.

Just announce that NK has met the conditions to unfreeze the account. Kim will then have to look for another issue or condition to latch on to in order to stall negotiations. He has to keep looking over his shoulder at China, though, every time he does this, so it will keep the pressure on him.

[maddezmom]

3. I thought Burns already said the money would be released?

[Eugene]

4. It's in the works. That's not good enough for North Korea.

Source: Associated Press

North Korean nuclear talks break down

By BO-MI LIM, Associated Press Writer
3 minutes ago

-snip-

This round of talks has been dogged by troubles since it started on Monday,
with Pyongyang refusing to take part for two days because of problems over
the transfer of $25 million in North Korean funds frozen since 2005 at Banco
Delta Asia in Macau under pressure from the United States.

-snip-

U.S. officials announced this week that the money would be transferred to the
North Koreans, saying it was up to the Monetary Authority of Macau, a Chinese
territory, to release the funds.

China had promised to resolve the issue as quickly as possible by transferring
the funds to a North Korean account at the Bank of China.

So far, neither the monetary authority nor Banco Delta Asia have indicated
when that would be, or said why the transfer has been delayed. But various
reasons have been offered by other parties.

-snip-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070322/ap_on_re_as/koreas_nuclear

[maddezmom]

5. gotcha...until it's in the bank they won't talk

they are worse than my 5 & 6 year olds.

[pampango]

6. Well said. I remember the days with the young ones.

In this case, Kim is not even promising to do anything, when he gets the money. He is only agreeing to talk about doing something. Something tells me that before he agrees to actually do anything, more funds will have to change hands. ;)

[hughee99]

8. The talks, at this point, are a waste of time, IMHO

The fact that NK is willing to tell the U.S. to go F' itself over a lousy $25 million dollars makes it sound to me like they have no interest in actually having serious talks right now anyway. I'm sure if the $$ is released, they'll still just refuse to take part until the McRib sandwich comes back or some other arbitrary condition is met. It sounds to me like they're just stalling.

[Odin2005]

9. NK = bunch of craybabies.