Officials of six nations held talks in Beijing late last month on ways of defusing the North Korean nuclear crisis, 50 years after the signing of the armistice agreement that ended hostilities in the Korean War. The talks culminated in agreement to solve the crisis in a peaceful manner through dialogue and pave the way for permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. The United States and North Korea, however, remained sharply divided over the abolition of the latter's nuclear-arms program.
Will the talks become the first step in a long process of establishing a new framework for consultations on security in Northeast Asia? Or will they mark the beginning of instability caused by tension over North Korea's nuclear threat?
Although North and South Korea, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia agreed on the need to promote "denuclearization" of the Peninsula, they failed to agree on specific measures to achieve the goal. Stronger international cooperation is the only way to get North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions and join the international community.