Powell Meeting Signifies Willingness to Show Progress

U.S., N. Korea Still Far Apart on Demands

JAKARTA, Indonesia--Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's decision to meet on Friday with the North Korean foreign minister here signifies a growing willingness by the Bush administration to demonstrate diplomatic progress in the impasse over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. But, despite months of negotiations, it appears that neither the United States nor North Korea have altered their bottom-line demands -- leaving still a wide gap between the two countries.

Both sides profess to want a denuclearized Korean peninsula and have largely shelved their harsh rhetoric. But the administration insists that it will not provide any tangible benefits to North Korea until after the reclusive communist state has renounced nuclear weapons, identified all of its programs, and had all of its claims verified.

North Korea, by contrast, has said it wants the United States to reward it immediately for making a formal pledge to freeze and ultimately dismantle its programs.

It is unclear how the two sides can bridge that divide, especially in the time remaining before the U.S. presidential election. Powell told reporters here Thursday that because North Korea violated a 1994 agreement, "we have to see deeds before we are prepared to put something on the table." North Korea, in a statement after the Powell meeting, lamented the lack of trust between the two sides.

Powell stressed to reporters that he did not negotiate with his North Korean counterpart, Paek Num Sum, but they sought "clarity" of each other's positions. "These are difficult negotiations. It just doesn't happen overnight," Powell told a group of Indonesian students after the North Korean meeting. "There is a great deal of mistrust between the United States and North Korea."

Politically, however, the Bush administration is eager to show it is making progress in the North Korean crisis. Democratic presidential hopeful John F. Kerry has made the administration's North Korean policy a central part of his critique of Bush's foreign policy. Kerry has argued that Bush's refusal to hold direct talks with North Korea has needlessly delayed diplomacy and allowed Pyongyang to rapidly build its nuclear arsenal.

Internally, the Bush administration has often been divided over how to deal with North Korea, also hampering diplomatic efforts. But with the election season in full swing, the tempo of U.S. actions has increased.

Last week, after prodding from U.S. allies, U.S. negotiators presented a more detailed plan for ending the crisis. Then, this week, Powell arranged to meet with Paek on the sidelines of an Asian security forum. Next week, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice -- who had once been focused on the moribund Middle East peace process -- will travel to Seoul, the South Korean government announced Friday, and North Korea is expected to be an important topic.

It is common for presidents to make significant shifts in their foreign-policy approach during an election year, only to reverse course yet again afterward. President Ronald Reagan authorized peace talks with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in June 1984 -- but called them off after the election.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Act, which authorized Americans to sue companies using appropriated property in Cuba, despite his long opposition -- and then waived key provisions after the election.

Seven days before the 1972 election, Richard Nixon's national security adviser Henry Kissinger declared that "peace is at hand" in Vietnam; by Christmas, Nixon had launched a massive bombing campaign.

Within the Bush administration, Powell has been a consistent advocate of trying to resolve the North Korean crisis through engaged diplomacy. Powell is expected to leave even if Bush is reelected, and other senior U.S. officials are deeply suspicious of the Pyongyang government and would prefer to isolate North Korea in hopes of fostering the regime's collapse.

Under the new U.S. proposal, U.S. allies such as South Korea could provide immediate energy assistance while North Korea would have three months to reveal its programs and have its claims verified by U.S. intelligence. Then, the U.S. would join in written security assurances and participate in a process that might ultimately result in direct U.S. aid.

In interagency discussions on the proposal, U.S. officials said, Powell had suggested offering provisional security assurances at the same time South Korea began energy assistance, thus giving North Korea at least a symbolic reward. But Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld convinced President Bush to withhold the security assurances until after North Korea displays its nuclear materials and U.S. intelligence verifies that Pyongyang is holding nothing back.