Resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis depends to a large degree on the ability of the other five countries in the six-party talks -- the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia -- to speak with one voice. It is vitally important that Washington and Seoul, in particular, closely coordinate policies; if they do not, Pyongyang will do its best to exploit differences between them. Thus far North Korea has done just that.
As the six-party process remains stalled, the leaders of the U.S. and South Korea have realized that they must work more closely together. At last week's summit meeting, Presidents George W. Bush and Roh Moo Hyun began to close the gap in their two countries' positions. South Korea, like the other members of the six-party talks -- even North Korea -- agrees on the need for a nuclear-weapons-free Korean Peninsula.
Seoul knows that a nuclear North Korea would be destabilizing for all Northeast Asia. As a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, South Korea also understands that North Korea's nuclear ambitions have an impact outside East Asia. Seoul knows that North Korean insecurities are the greatest threat to peace and stability in the region and that only when its nuclear program has been eliminated can Pyongyang rejoin the community of nations and expect aid from other countries.