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PacNet #8 – A Way Out of the Six-Party Impasse?

The Six-Party Talks on Korea are moribund, if not dead. They have been boycotted by North Korea since 2008 and now the US and its allies refuse to return until Pyongyang apologizes for its reckless provocations of South Korea in 2010 and shows a genuine commitment to negotiate over denuclearization. Meanwhile, due to those provocations and South Korea’s determination to resist any future attacks, there were real fears of war. As the Obama administration has embraced its predecessor’s mantra of complete, verifiable, and irreversible disarmament as a precondition for negotiation, talks have stalemated since North Korea appears unlikely to surrender its nuclear weapons.