The Bush administration's tactics for disarming North Korea are not working, two key US supporters on the talks told Secretary of State Colin Powell this week. But the administration is downplaying a rift with its allies on the sensitive issue -- over which US President George W. Bush and Democratic opponent John Kerry have repeatedly sparred.
Despite appearances this week, the State Department says the US enjoys a "remarkable similarity of views" with China and South Korea on North Korea. The US has joined with those two countries, and with Japan and Russia, in an attempt to convince North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for economic benefits and security guarantees.
The process is at a standstill because of Pyongyang's refusal to show up for talks scheduled for last month. Bush administration officials are convinced that the North has decided to hold off on negotiations until after the US presidential elections.
With Powell standing at his side in Seoul on Tuesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon said the US and fellow negotiators "must come up with a more creative and realistic proposal" to lure North Korea back to the talks.
A day earlier in Beijing, after a meeting with Powell, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing called for a "more flexible and practical" US attitude toward North Korea.
Powell indicated frustration because he believes the US showed flexibility in June, the last time that six-nation talks were held. The US set forth a detailed proposal on the pace and type of benefits North Korea would receive if it offered a credible commitment to disarm. Powell suggested that the US is not about to offer a new proposal when North Korea has yet to respond to the last one.
American visitors to North Korea have been impressed with how attuned Pyongyang officials are to campaign developments, including polling numbers. Many assume that the North prefers Kerry to Bush, who has labeled the North as a member of an international "axis of evil."
Kerry says "America is more threatened than ever before" as a result of Bush's approach to the problem. He says direct talks with North Korea should supplement the six-party format.
Bush holds that one-on-one discussions would trigger the collapse of the broad-based approach.
Powell has said that a one-on-one format is just what the North Koreans want. "They want some benefits and rewards for their incorrect behavior. They want free aid," he says.
In denying suggestions of a US rift with China and South Korea over tactics, the State Department said Wednesday, "The thrust of the trip from all of us was how to get them back to the table, how to press forward as soon as possible."
But it was highly unusual for China and South Korea to air their differences with Washington so close to the US election, noted Nicholas Eberstadt, a Korea expert at the American Enterprise Institute.
"It begs the question as to why Powell would have subjected himself to this if he had foreseen the embarrassment that was awaiting him," Eberstadt says.
Chinese criticism of the US may be aimed at calming North Korea, making it easier for Pyongyang to return to the talks, said Don Oberdorfer, of the School of Advanced International Studies.
He believes a resumption of discussions is a matter of time.
Powell rules out the one-on-one approach because it was tried in 1994, he says, and ended with an agreement that North Korea violated not long thereafter.
Lately, the US has softened its rhetoric, presumably to woo North Korea back to the six-party discussions.
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