HONOLULU -- "Surrender means death!" This pretty much sums up North Korea's opening position at the six-nation talks in Beijing this week. U.S. insistence that North Korea dismantle its nuclear program "fully, verifiably, and irreversibly" in advance of dialogue (or rewards) "is little short of demanding that the DPRK (North Korea) surrender to it," proclaims Pyongyang, which demands, as a precondition to progress, "confirmation that the U.S. has dropped its hostile policy."
To demonstrate its "fundamental switchover," Washington must conclude "a legally binding nonaggression treaty and establish diplomatic relations" and promise not to "obstruct (North Korea's) economic cooperation" with other countries. The latter is an obvious reference to Washington's new Proliferation Security Initiative aimed at stopping the flow of weapons of mass destruction.
In effect, North Korea wants Washington to stop hindering its weapons trafficking (not to mention its highly lucrative drug-smuggling operations). However, pending counterproliferation exercises by Washington's assembled 11-nation "coalition of the willing" send a strong signal that Washington intends to strengthen the PSI as part of its broader noose-tightening policy toward Pyongyang.