HONOLULU (Scott Snyder is a senior associate of the Pacific Forum CSIS. This article was originally published in PacNet Newsletter.
The six-party talks reconvened earlier this month in Beijing for the first time since the release of a six-party joint statement issued by China on Oct. 3 that anticipated a series of concrete measures to be completed by the end of 2007.
During the hiatus, the United States and North Korea held bilateral negotiations over how to implement the commitments outlined in that statement to disable all nuclear facilities in North Korea, beginning with the ones at Yongbyon. Meanwhile, North Korea "reaffirmed its commitment not to transfer nuclear materials, technology and knowhow" and to make a "complete and correct" declaration of its nuclear programs in return for: a million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent energy supplies, improvement of U.S.-North Korean ties through removal from the U.S. terrorism list and repeal of the Trading with the Enemy Act, and improvement of Japan-North Korea relations through implementation of the Pyongyang Declaration.