In a move that has been played very close to the Obama administration’s diplomatic vest, it has been learned that President Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jon Il. It is part of a strong effort to convince the North Koreans to come back to the negotiations concerning it’s nuclear program. From The Washington Post:
Washington’s recent bid to persuade North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament negotiations included a personal letter to leader Kim Jong Il written by President Barack Obama, a senior U.S. official said.
Envoy Stephen Bosworth took the letter to Pyongyang last week, handing it over to North Korean officials during the Obama administration’s first bilateral talks since the U.S. president took office, the official said in Washington.
The official, who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the diplomacy, would not describe the contents of the letter but said they fit with Bosworth’s general message.
“The North Koreans have a choice: continued and further isolation or benefits for returning to the six-party talks and dismantling their nuclear weapons program,” the official said. The official was not aware whether Kim had responded.
I would hope something good can come from the diplomatic efforts President Obama is putting forth, but I am not sure how optimistic we can be. The North Koreans are notoriously stubborn when it comes to their weapons programs and they are not going to give up so easily. As long as they think they have more to gain by holding out against international pressure to dismantle their nuclear program, we can expect them to dig in their heels. They have shown this to be true for years and I can’t see them changing their tactics now.
I am not a foreign policy expert, nor an expert on North Korea, but from what I can gather, Kim Jong Il isn’t about to make a move on the nuclear side until he can get the United States to sit down in direct talks with his country. It’s what most of us would consider a face saving move and the North Koreans are big on saving face. If they can convince our country to engage in direct talks with them, they will have done just that.
Some of President Obama’s critics will probably say the man is going to far in his attempts to talk to a country who clearly has only their best interests at heart. They do not seem to be concerned in the least about the opinion other countries may or may not have of them. I would say this, it’s worth a shot, as long as the security of the Korean Peninsula is not compromised, along with the security of the rest of the world. It remains to be seen just how far the Obama administration will be willing to go to influence them in the right direction.
