Lowballing estimates of the value of negotiating with the North Koreans is a nearly impossible act, but what did President Carter get in Pyongyang?

Carter said that North Korea wants to have an unconditional dialogue with South Korea and the United States on denuclearization or any other subject, but will not abandon its nuclear weapons without a security guarantee.

“We are hearing consistently throughout our busy schedule here in Pyongyang that the North wants to improve relations with America and is prepared to talk without preconditions to both the U.S. and South Korea on any subject,” Carter said Wednesday in a message posted on the Web site of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders to promote global peace and humanity.

“The sticking point, and it’s a big one, is that they won’t give up their nuclear program without some kind of security guarantee from the U.S.,” he said.

This last point, Nightwatch points out, is misleading.

The international team missed the nuance in the North Korean usage of the term “without preconditions.” For the North, that means ignore the past and start anew. The North deliberately exploits its understanding of the American sense of fair play in order to persuade an American-led delegation that the North’s intentions are open and sincere.

Nevertheless, the North Korean slate is not clean and its intentions are far from sincere. The North wants to start a new cycle of aid requests without accounting for its unprovoked provocations last year — the sinking of a South Korean patrol ship and its coastal artillery fire that killed South Korean civilians on a South Korean island.

Aside from a tainted offer, the North’s leaders never will trust security assurances from the US. To do so would contravene “juche” — self-reliance – the national mythology. No US security guarantees would ever be adequate.

Meanwhile, Jun Young-su is still in North Korea. Carter never met Kim Jong-il, either. Perhaps, if nothing else, this trip will put paid to the bizarre notion, that Carter is magic in North Korea, and nowhere else.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Filed under: Korea Tagged: elders, jimmy carter, jun young su, north korea