Tom Coyner who publishes the Korea Economic Reader has offered some thoughtful comments in the Wall Street Journal in regards to the US offer of bi-lateral talks with North Korea:

Regarding your editorial on possible U.S.-North Korea bilateral talks (“Kim Wins Another,” Sept. 15) I agree that the North Korean regime may use the gesture for domestic propaganda to make the U.S. look weak. But in every other way, the gesture really doesn’t mean much. The six-party process is dead, even if Washington and New York refuse to acknowledge this painfully obvious fact. In the meantime, Pyongyang has advanced its nuclear-weapons programs. Bilateral talks are thus unavoidable.

The U.S. and North Korea may talk about win-win solutions, but in reality, both face only win-lose proposals. The U.S. and its allies want a peaceful, denuclearized Korean peninsula and are willing to recognize the legitimacy of both governments, provided Pyongyang gives up its nuclear weapons and recognizes the South Korean government. On its part, North Korea wants a peace treaty with the U.S., provided the U.S. recognizes Pyongyang as a nuclear power. Furthermore, the North Koreans cannot recognize the South Korean government due to the North’s ideological underpinnings.

What we are left with are two desperate negotiating partners, willing once again to change venues without serious breakthrough expectations. In Washington, the Democrats castigated the former Bush administration for its failed policies—and now the roles are reversed. Meanwhile, the status quo continues serving all six parties’ fundamental, short-term needs—albeit at the sacrifice of the North Korean populace.

Tom Coyner

Seoul

I agree that bi-lateral talks were unavoidable, but I believe what is important is the context they are held in.  They should ideally be held as an off shoot of the six party talks.  By agreeing to hold the bilateral talks during the six party talks it first of all restarts the talks which North Korea said it wouldn’t do and doesn’t make it look like the US is once again giving into North Korean demands.  It would also help assure the US’s two allies in the region Japan and South Korea that the US isn’t about to sell them out as has been their concern recently.

Will the talks likely accomplish anything?  Probably not as long as the Obama administration doesn’t fold like the Bush administration before it and offer the North Koreans a “Grand Bargain” with little to nothing in return.  For once lets keep the pressure on the North Koreans while holding negotiations and see what happens.