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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsU.S. and North Korea held secret meeting in March
A top State Department official met with a top representative of the North Korean government in New York in March, The Cable has learned.
Clifford Hart, the State Department's special envoy to the now-defunct six-party talks, met North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations Han Song-ryol in mid-March, just before North Korea began its latest string of provocative statements and actions, diplomatic sources said. The meeting was done through what's known in diplomatic circles as the "New York channel," the most common method of direct communication between Washington and Pyongyang.
No real progress was made during the meeting and no new offers were made by the U.S. officials present, the sources said. The U.S. side simply reiterated the administration's call for North Korea to avoid provocative actions as well as its offer for a return to diplomacy if North Korea recommitted to fulfilling its international obligations and pursuing a path of denuclearization. The North Korean side simply agreed to communicate that information back to Pyongyang.
For outside experts critical of the Obama administration's current approach to North Korea, which is based on the principle of "strategic patience," or waiting for Pyongyang to change its calculus and rejoin multilateral talks, the meeting is only the latest indication that the administration's policy is stagnant.
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http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/04/09/exclusive_us_and_north_korea_held_secret_meeting_in_march
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)(and his administration members). He's factual, but only consults Republican sources and uses the GOP slant. I've not seen it otherwise from him.
Renew Deal
(81,855 posts)But I couldn't really argue the point either way. Thanks for the heads up.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)a negative analysis or spin. He could report this as: Obama tried again to restart diplomacy with North Korea before the current crisis--but why make Obama look like he's trying to do his job? Nah, make him sound like a failure.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,406 posts)He does it all of the time here at home. Not much he- or anybody else- can do about it.
MineralMan
(146,286 posts)So, I have no way to judge. I don't register on websites like that one.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)Paste it onto a google search, click the google link, and it may let you read it.
MineralMan
(146,286 posts)Registration walls keep me off sites. There are plenty that don't have them. I refuse.