Center for International Policy

As printed in Reuters

September 15, 2005

Giving face as key as twisting arms at N.Korea talks
by Lindsay Beck

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korean nuclear talks hinge on twisting arms and pulling teeth, but convincing the reclusive state to dismantle its weapons programmes may be as much about saving face.

With six countries as different as barren, impoverished North Korea and the United States, the world's biggest economy, hashing it out around a giant six-sided table in the Chinese capital, style is as important to the process as substance.

Indeed the opening session of the fourth round of talks in July was seen as positive simply for the fact that the U.S. and North Korean negotiators, the main players in the process that also includes South Korea, Japan, Russia and host China, sat down together, one on one.

With U.S. President George W. Bush having once described North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" and Pyongyang hitting back by calling the United States the "empire of the devil", the bilateral meetings were seen as a major achievement.

According to one anecdote Chinese officials tell, the two had to be tricked into talking to each other at earlier rounds through a complicated dance in which the other players paired off to couches around the room until the Americans and North Koreans found themselves alone at the table.

That changed when Christopher Hill took over as head of the U.S. negotiating team and initiated an unprecedented level of contact with the North, culminating in a steak and cheesecake dinner that led to renewed talks after a year of stalemate.

FACE, AND IN YOUR FACE

But as the fourth round of negotiations, which resumed on Tuesday after a five-week recess, get bogged down over the issue of whether North Korea should be allowed a civilian atomic energy programme, the old invective is creeping back.

"It's very clear that they wanted to spend today making this a light-water reactor day," Hill told reporters on Wednesday.

"I hope this does not become a light-water reactor week because there are not too many other ways I know how to say 'no' without slipping into another language," he said.

The blunt comments could bode ill for reaching an agreement with North Korea, a country some analysts have said must be treated with an understanding of its deeply held values of face, or public shame.

North Korea expert Selig Harrison has said the country is "obsessed with pride and face", adding that in the six-party process, "half the problem is North Korea's pride".

But however averse Pyongyang might be to details of private negotiations being aired in public, the North has shown it can give as good as it gets.

At past rounds of talks, North Korea's delegation called news conferences to denounce the United States.

This time its state news agency issued a commentary to coincide with he opening day describing U.S. allegations it has a highly enriched uranium programme as "sheer fabrication".

"Its false propaganda launched just before the second phase of the fourth round of the six-party talks cannot be construed otherwise than a very insolent act seeking a sinister political purpose," it said.