Reprocessing Talk

The

re was a collective sigh earlier this month when Pyongyang finally agreed to sit down with the U.S. and China to negotiate a possible end to North Korea's nuclear program. Finally, it seemed, the threat posed by unstable dictator Kim Jong Il holding his finger over the button was about to be defused. This week, however, North Korea reminded the world how perilous Dear Leader dealings were by announcing it had begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium.

Starting up the reprocessing facility at the Yongbyon nuclear plant has been widely viewed as dangerously provocative because it might allow the North to produce several A-bombs in a matter of months. But so far, Washington's reaction has been muted. U.S. State Department officials quickly saw that the original Korean version of the statement was less definitive than suggested in initial news reports. "There is some discrepancy over the language," a senior State official said Friday, "We're not convinced they have started reprocessing and we're going to wait and see for now."

In any case, U.S. diplomats are used to Pyongyang's scare tactics. Through bluster and provocative moves—including becoming the first country to withdraw from the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—North Korea has spent the last seven months trying to convince the world it is a dangerous military power on a hair-trigger—one that must be appeased at all costs.

The U.S., while holding back from major concessions, is unlikely to call off the negotiations, especially since the meeting is viewed as a major coup for U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. "He's been working this personally and carefully with the Chinese," says a senior State Department official. Still busy tidying up after the last regime change, the U.S. needs more than anything to find a peaceful way to convince this Axis of Evil member to give up its weapons of mass destruction.