Games Dictators Play

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Games Dictators Play

Diplomats don't get paid to be blunt (at least not in public), but here's the undiplomatic truth: no one involved in negotiating with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il over nukes expects a smooth process. "If you're asking whether anyone thought the road to total disarmament would be completely straightforward," says an official who until recently was closely involved in the so-called six-party talks, "with no backsliding, no new demands, no different interpretations of timetables or whatever, then no, the answer is, of course not."

Which is why no one is particularly surprised by the latest disagreement. On Sept. 2, the U.S. announced that a weekend of direct talks had resulted in the North's commitment to account for and disable all facets of its nuclear program by the end of the year--the first time, it stressed, that Pyongyang had agreed to a specific timetable on full denuclearization. The North Koreans in turn announced how happy they were that the U.S. had agreed to take Pyongyang off its list of state sponsors of terrorism, something Kim has long sought. The only problem is that the U.S. later flatly denied that Pyongyang was off the list, saying the February agreement only held that out as a prospect if and when the North verifiably no longer had nukes.

Did the disagreement amount to something that might scuttle the entire enterprise? Not likely. "We've all come to the conclusion that they [those in the North] are serious about disarmament in return for economic and diplomatic benefits," says a negotiator, "and nothing we've seen so far has made us back away from that assessment."