US Demands North Korea Accept Nuclear Disamament

'Cautiously Optimistic' on North Korea Talks

US officials today said they were “cautiously optimistic” about the talks with North Korea earlier this week in New York, but insisted that further talks required the North to immediately commit to full nuclear disarmament.

The comments come just two days after North Korean officials urged the US to accept a peace deal ending the 61-year-old Korean War. Those officials said that the path toward nuclear disarament would move forward much more easily in the absence of a war.

And this is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the US comments today, more than what was actually said. US officials did not address the peace offer even in passing, instead focusing on demands as conditions for new talks.

Though this suggests the peace deal won’t be accepted, it was at the very least not angrily and publicly rejected outright, as the Obama Administration did last year in January.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.