(H/T – Sister Toldjah)
The North Koreans appear to have folded on the nuclear issue, tentatively agreeing to initial steps to nuclear disarmament, including what Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill termed specific committments for the North Koreans and a working group to begin meeting in a month.
For those of you that thought that unilateral engagement was the way to go, this was reached through the 6-party talks you poo-poohed.
Of course, the devil, as always with Krazy Kim and company, is not only in the unreleased details, but in the verification. We thought we had a deal with the Kims back in 1994, but a lack of verification and proper details let North Korea continue their parallel nuclear program before the ink was even dry, and ultimately let them reintegrate the supposedly-shut-down program into it.
Revisions/extensions (3:15 pm 2/12/2007) – A further update from the AP gives a rough timeline (North Korea demanded 2 gigawatts of electricity or 2 million barrels of heavy fuel oil; the sources of that energy, South Korea and Russia, balked; the US told North Korea to compromise or the talks were over; and after 16 marathon hours, the North Koreans cracked). Meanwhile, AFP said that it was the Red Chinese that offered that breakthrough and has circulated a “final draft” (unavailable on the wires when I started the update).
Revisions/extensions part 2 (5:04 pm 2/12/2007) – The Japanese Kyodo News Agency says that the NK demand was for both the electricity and oil, Fox News is reporting that the Communists at State bargained away the $25 million sanction slapped on North Korea for counterfeiting American currency, and the latest version of the AP story has both Russia and Japan throwing cold water on the whole works.
