About the Author
Georgy Toloraya
Dr. Georgy D. Toloraya, is the Director of Korean Programs at the Institute of Economy at the Russian Academy of Science. He previously served as a senior Russian diplomat in both North and South Korea.
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Analysis The Six-Party Talks on N.Korea are dead – long live the Six-Party Talks?Conditions have changed, and Pyongyang’s erstwhile negotiating partners must change too
Numerous press reports that DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointwoman Choi Sung Hui, during the recent NEACD meeting near Beijing, “declared the Six-Party Talks dead” and vowed that no denuclearization is in the cards were perceived as a sort of a landmark. However, there is nothing new in these declarations. The “nuclear deterrent” is an existential matter enshrined in the DPRK Constitution. The Seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea made it clear that improving nuclear and missile capabilities is the basic course of the state and party under the framework of Byungjin line and that no denuclearization may be expected. In the congress, the nuclear doctrine was announced and North Koreans now vow to increase their nuclear weapons “quantitatively and qualitatively.” NORTH KOREA’S POSITION LAID BARE © Korea Risk Group. All rights reserved. |