HONOLULU -- It has been nine months since the fourth round of six-party talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula concluded with a joint statement of principles. That statement now appears to be the high-water mark of the process rather than a baseline for future negotiations.

Some analysts have already declared the process dead, a judgment that implies tacit acceptance by all parties of a de facto nuclear North Korea.

A private meeting of negotiators from all six parties (North Korea, South Korea, Russia, China, Japan and the United States) in Tokyo in April appeared to confirm suspicions that the talks had stalemated as a result of North Korean objections to U.S. "economic sanctions."