The four-way Korea peace talks are again in the news as negotiators from North and South Korea, the United States and China return to the table in Geneva. Few people are holding their breath, and no one should. Diplomacy has hit a bind as Pyongyang keeps the world guessing about its intentions to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The latest worry in Japan and elsewhere in the region is North Korea's ballistic missile program. There have been a stream of intelligence reports suggesting that the North Koreans are preparing to test-fire an advanced long-range ballistic missile capable of hitting not only the entire Japanese archipelago, but even Alaska. Both Japan and the U.S. have pressed Pyongyang not to test such a missile. But North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan reportedly told the U.S. negotiator in Geneva that launching a missile is "a matter of sovereignty."
It is time that Japan, the U.S. and South Korea rethink their North Korea strategy. Washington still favors a "comprehensive and integrated" approach in dealing with the North Korean regime, a policy that has been in the works by U.S. President Bill Clinton's special adviser on North Korea, former Defense Secretary William Perry. Mr. Perry apparently believes that Pyongyang will respond if Washington and its two Asian allies spell out all the political and economic benefits that North Korea will gain in return for a "comprehensive" settlement of all pending issues.