Kim's China visit raises hope on nuke talks (Kim Jong Il that is)

[chenGOD]

Korea Herald link

from the article:

The North Korean leader's reported visit to Beijing this week has increased hopes for creating a more favorable environment to resolve the prolonged nuclear standoff, but experts are divided on whether his trip will yield any major breakthrough in Pyongyang's battle with Washington over the issue....

.....Reported summit talks between North Korean Defense Chairman Kim Jong-il and Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday came against the backdrop of brisk diplomatic contacts among participants of multilateral nuclear talks toward opening their third round of negotiations, hopefully by the end of June.

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I don't know what's gonna come out of this, but if China can push North korea towards a more free market attitude (and they're trying with the developmnet of Siniju in the north and Kaesong near the DMZ), then hopefully they can promote a bit more openness as well. It's definitely in South Korea's best interest to have North Korea try and catch up somewhat as far as financial terms go. And remember, when people are happy and have cash, they're far less likely to start shooting missiles across borders (although that didn't stop Dubya. maybe he wasn't happy?)

[Snow]

1. My take on it is that Kim wants to hear what Cheney

told the Chinese. The other major thread going on is that none of North Korea's neighbors (especially South Korea & China) want a collapse on their hands because then they'd have refugees pouring across the borders & huge expenses that would challenge their economies severely. It's the right thing to do and all, helping out the North Koreans, but everybody watched the German reunification with great concern. It'd be a lot more painful for Korea.

On edit: even more than wanting to hear what Cheney did & said, it could well be Cheney gave the Chinese a message/offer to pass along to Kim. Hmmmm. Wonder what form that might take?

[chenGOD]

2. Yeah I agree pretty much...

I'm pretty sure Cheney ('the deranged one') made some demands of China to put pressure on North Korea and pass on a message. The refugees pouring across the border one is a big issue for sure, and the level of disparity between the two Koreas is bigger than between the two Germanys.