The Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov was in North Korea on Thursday in an attempt to patch up the tarnished nuclear situation. The main goal of this effort was to attempt to get North Korea to come back to disarmament talks and relinquish their nuclear program.
As of now, North Korea has effectively spit on face of each nation involved in the six party talks for disarmament. They have stated that production to make weapons grade plutonium will begin again and that they have no interest in the six nation talks.
The Russian Foreign minister stated, “so far we don’t expect any immediate breakthroughs.” Does that mean they can be expected for the future?
Yu Myung-Hwan, the South Korean Foreign Minister commented on the situation saying, “North Korea must not aggravate the situation any further but abide by the UN Security Council resolution and return to the nuclear disarmament process as early as possible.” However I just don’t see that as happening without some sort of major incentive for their cooperation or some diplomatic breakthrough.
Yet again, I find myself baffled by this situation. What possible solutions exist for appeasing or satisfying a nation who is utterly unreasonable? We offered North Korea a very satisfying deal whereby we would give aid in exchange for disarmament. However the deal fell apart when North Korea decided that verification of disarmament was out of the question. Is North Korea simply bent on developing harmful weapons? If they are, could this lead to a war? Can we even afford another war? What other options do we have if North Korea continues to develop deadly weapons?
