Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
March 1, 2008
Pg. 12
Same Day as Historic Concert, Officials Stayed Mum on Arms
By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Foreign Service
TOKYO, Feb. 29 -- Hours before the New York Philharmonic played a historic concert in North Korea, senior officials told a visiting U.S. contingent that they would prefer not to account for weapons-grade enriched uranium that the United States believes the government of Kim Jong Il has produced.
At a lunch Tuesday in Pyongyang, the capital, the North Koreans also said they would prefer not to talk about alleged sales of nuclear material and technology to other countries, Evans Revere, a former U.S. diplomat, said Friday in Tokyo.
North Korea wants those issues "set aside" for now while the United States fulfills commitments it made last year to provide the country with energy assistance and to lift diplomatic sanctions, he said.
Revere was part of the group that met with North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Gye Gwan, and other officials. The U.S. contingent also included William J. Perry, a secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, and Donald P. Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to Seoul.
The Americans had traveled to Pyongyang on the day of the concert to deliver a hopeful message, Revere said, adding that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was briefed in advance on their trip.
The Americans announced at the lunch that "the stars were as well aligned as we had ever seen them" for a breakthrough in U.S.-North Korean relations, said Revere, president of the New York-based Korea Society, which helped set up the New York Philharmonic's trip.
But the North Koreans were told that for such a breakthrough to occur, they would have to provide "some clarity" on their long-suspected production of enriched uranium, Revere said. They were also told, he added, that North Korea must disclose whether it has sold bombmaking material and technology to other countries, including Syria.
"We made all these points in a stark fashion," Revere said. "And we heard from them a very clear desire to avoid talking about these issues, if at all possible. We told them that that position was not tenable, in the view of Washington and other world capitals."
March 1, 2008
Pg. 12
Same Day as Historic Concert, Officials Stayed Mum on Arms
By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Foreign Service
TOKYO, Feb. 29 -- Hours before the New York Philharmonic played a historic concert in North Korea, senior officials told a visiting U.S. contingent that they would prefer not to account for weapons-grade enriched uranium that the United States believes the government of Kim Jong Il has produced.
At a lunch Tuesday in Pyongyang, the capital, the North Koreans also said they would prefer not to talk about alleged sales of nuclear material and technology to other countries, Evans Revere, a former U.S. diplomat, said Friday in Tokyo.
North Korea wants those issues "set aside" for now while the United States fulfills commitments it made last year to provide the country with energy assistance and to lift diplomatic sanctions, he said.
Revere was part of the group that met with North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Gye Gwan, and other officials. The U.S. contingent also included William J. Perry, a secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, and Donald P. Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to Seoul.
The Americans had traveled to Pyongyang on the day of the concert to deliver a hopeful message, Revere said, adding that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was briefed in advance on their trip.
The Americans announced at the lunch that "the stars were as well aligned as we had ever seen them" for a breakthrough in U.S.-North Korean relations, said Revere, president of the New York-based Korea Society, which helped set up the New York Philharmonic's trip.
But the North Koreans were told that for such a breakthrough to occur, they would have to provide "some clarity" on their long-suspected production of enriched uranium, Revere said. They were also told, he added, that North Korea must disclose whether it has sold bombmaking material and technology to other countries, including Syria.
"We made all these points in a stark fashion," Revere said. "And we heard from them a very clear desire to avoid talking about these issues, if at all possible. We told them that that position was not tenable, in the view of Washington and other world capitals."