HONOLULU -- The second round of six-party talks on North Korea's suspected nuclear-weapons program is scheduled to begin Wednesday. Expectations are currently running so low that many will call the meeting a success if the North Koreans merely show up, or if they don't walk out once the United States begins speaking. Others are defining success as the parties agreeing, during the course of this meeting, to meet again, even if nothing else is accomplished beyond a further vetting of positions and grievances.
In what was otherwise a most comprehensive and thoughtful analysis of the nuclear crisis and diplomatic effort to date, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, the chief U.S. negotiator at the talks, said in a Washington speech on Feb 13, that "we expect that the round will result in further progress toward a permanent solution, even if the progress may not be readily apparent."
Despite U.S. admonitions that Pyongyang should follow "the Libya model," few, if any, are predicting that the North Koreans will come clean and acknowledge its weapons program, developed through the clandestine purchase of technology and equipment from Pakistan.