NYT: U.S. to Offer North Korea Incentives in Nuclear Talks

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S. to Offer North Korea Incentives in Nuclear Talks
By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: June 23, 2004


WASHINGTON, June 22 - President Bush has authorized a team of American negotiators to offer North Korea, in talks in Beijing on Thursday, a new but highly conditional set of incentives to give up its nuclear weapons programs the way Libya did late last year, according to senior administration officials.

The proposal would be the first significant, detailed overture to North Korea since Mr. Bush took office three years ago.

Under the plan, outlined by American officials on Tuesday evening, in response to pressure from China and American allies in Asia, the aid would begin flowing immediately after a commitment by Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, to dismantle his plutonium and uranium weapons programs. In return, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea would immediately begin sending tens of thousands of tons of heavy fuel oil every month, and Washington would offer a "provisional'' guarantee not to invade the country or seek to topple Mr. Kim's government.

It would also begin direct talks about lifting a broad array of American economic sanctions that have been in place against North Korea for more than half a century, and providing longer-term energy aid and retraining of nuclear scientists.

But Mr. Kim would have only three months, what the officials call a "preparatory period of dismantlement,'' to seal and shut the North Korean nuclear facilities, similar to what Libya committed to late last year. After that, Mr. Bush's aides say, the continuation of the oil and the talks would depend on North Korea giving international inspectors access to suspected nuclear sites, and meeting a series of deadlines for disclosing the full nature of its facilities, disabling and dismantling then, and then shipping them out of the country, as Libya did....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/politics/23kore.html

[pinniped]

1. Fire up the war machine!

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Washington would offer a "provisional'' guarantee not to invade the country or seek to topple Mr. Kim's government.
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[sadiesworld]

2. Can you say "appeasement"?

This is rich.

3 months--I guess the shrub needs a foreign policy "success" prior to the election.

How predictable.