September 5, 2007
Written by C.N.
Possible Breakthrough in North Korea-U.S. Relations
If you’ve been paying attention to international events (other than the Iraq War) in recent years, you already know that the mutual animosity between North Korea and the U.S. is very deep and intense. In fact, I just finished watching an excellent documentary entitled “Inside North Korea” on the National Geographic Channel that describes the fervor of that sentiment inside North Korea.
However, as the Christian Science Monitor reports, after some recent high-level talks between the U.S. and North Korea, there now seems the real possibility that relations between the two enemies might be significantly improving soon and even move toward something resembling “normal”:
The deal struck by the top US and North Korean negotiators in Geneva for North Korea to live up to its promise to give up its nuclear weapons program apparently comes with crucial US concessions. The US agreed in the talks to take North Korea off the State Department’s list of “terrorist” countries, according to a spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry, and also to provide political and economic “compensation” in the form of removal of sanctions. . . .
“You can see the North Korean strategy,” says Moon Jung In, professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul. The reward for North Korean cooperation, besides an outpouring of aid, he says, is diplomatic relations between Pyongyang and Washington. “North Korea is interested in normalizing relations,” says Mr. Moon, who functions as an ambassador at large for the South Korean government. “The US has nothing to lose.”
The article goes on to note that this apparent deal is just the start of the process and the final details still need to be hammered out. In addition, we should remember that there have been previous hopes for a breakthrough that have been shattered by one party or the other.
However, the preliminary indications here are very positive and encouraging and I, like virtually everybody else involved, hope that it come to fruition and that U.S.-North Korean relations will start becoming normalized.
This is one area in which President Bush has the real potential to leave a positive legacy for the U.S. and the world.
Author Citation
Copyright © 2001- by C.N. Le. Some rights reserved. 
Suggested reference: Le, C.N. . "Possible Breakthrough in North Korea-U.S. Relations" Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America. <https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/2007/09/possible-breakthrough-in-north-korea-us-relations/> ().
Short URL: https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/?p=476
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