US brushes aside China's call for N Korea talks

[Poll_Blind]

Source: Agence France-Presse

The United States stressed sanctions over diplomacy to rein in North Korea, brushing aside China's call for talks as US and South Korean warships staged a show of strength on Tuesday against Pyongyang. The North's deadly artillery attack on a South Korean border island last week has highlighted
deep differences between Beijing and Washington and its allies over how to restrain the North.

China's refusal publicly to condemn its ally for the shelling -- the first of a civilian area in the South since the 1950-53 war -- has sparked anger and public protests in South Korea.

The United States and Japan, meanwhile, have been dismissive about China's call for emergency consultations on the crisis between envoys to stalled six-nation talks on the North's nuclear disarmament.

The White House said such talks would amount to "PR activity" unless Pyongyang changes its behaviour.

"The North Koreans need to demonstrate a seriousness of purpose in ending their aggressive behaviour," spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday.

Gibbs said the United States and other countries "were not interested in stabilising the region through a series of PR (public relations) activities".

Read more: http://www.hindustantimes.com/US-brushes-aside-China-s-call-for-N-Korea-talks/Article1-632537.aspx

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Well that's the end of that.

I swear to God, didn't Obama sell himself as the person willing to negotiate without preconditions? Much less, as this illustrates, negotiate at all?

PB

[TheWraith]

1. Yes, because there's no such thing as nuance in the world.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't DUers been screaming about how they think Obama is clueless about negotiating with someone who has no intention of compromising when it comes to the Republicans? And then they say exactly that about NK, and suddenly they're the spawn of satan? :eyes:

[Poll_Blind]

2. Is that the fashionable term for it, "nuance"?

:shrug:

PB

[ProgressiveMajority]

8. North Korea can be negotiated with, Carter proved that

Republicans on the other hand, can not.

[MrBig]

3. Well that makes sense

Considering the Chinese appear ready to abandon the North Koreans...at least according to Wikileaks.

[David__77]

5. Lol... that's not true.

One ambassador said that, who I suspect will be reassigned unofficially. The same cable has this Chinese ambassador complaining about Wu Dawei, who outranks him, complaining that he is pro-N. Korean and a "Marx spouter." We are seeing the media spin these cables in whatever way they or their masters want. Let's have sober analysis of these materials, bearing in mind that there is a possibility that there is a counter-intelligence disinformation effort wound up in this material.

[Akoto]

4. By default, negotiating with NK has preconditions.

Everyone knows how this endless cycle works. North Korea does something alarming to get attention. The powers that be get together and find out what would placate them (supplies, etc). NK then returns to its slumber for a while. In the interim, its citizens are held prisoner, subject to the batshit insane whims of their evil gnomish overlord.

I agree that the course of diplomacy needs to change. Not in favor of war, but this 'we do something bad, and you pay us to stop' cycle has to end.

[bemildred]

6. Dang, I thought we asked China to help out. Now this ... nt

[bemildred]

7. Russia Backs China’s Call for Six-Party Talks on North Korea

Russia supports China’s proposal to hold six-nation talks on military tensions stemming from North Korea’s Nov. 23 artillery attack on a South Korean island, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said.

“We think that if everybody could come to those talks, they could be useful,” Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in an interview today. “We sort of view this initiative as a positive one.”

China proposed on Nov. 28 that “emergency” talks to address the increasing tensions on the Korean peninsula be held early next month in Beijing. They would involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, North Korea and the U.S., a group that met several times, starting in 2003, to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program until the government in Pyongyang pulled out of the talks in April 2009.

The U.S., Japan and South Korea haven’t agreed to China’s proposal, saying they want to see more concrete action by North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program before restarting the talks.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-30/russia-backs-china-s-call-for-six-party-talks-on-north-korea.html