SEOUL — One might say that this year's North Korean nuclear crisis has been postponed -- to be rescheduled at a date more convenient for the political calendar.
Dealing with Pyongyang's headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons, once described as the biggest security threat to the United States, has been downgraded to a droning diplomatic process with little sense of urgency -- at least until after the U.S. presidential election.
"It is like they are just going through the motions," said Charles L. Pritchard, once a lead U.S. negotiator with North Korea and now a harsh critic of the Bush administration's handling of the Stalinist regime.
The latest delays come on top of months of fits and starts on North Korea as the war in Iraq largely dominated the world's attention. As the standoff over the North's nuclear ambitions drags into its 19th month, Pyongyang is likely to be exploiting delays to perfect its bomb-making technology.
The most recent round of six-party talks -- involving the United States, North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia -- ended inconclusively in late February. Another round is supposed to take place before July. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il arrived in Beijing on Monday for talks with Chinese president Hu Jintao. Working groups are being established to discuss technical aspects of the nuclear problem.
In Pritchard's view, this flurry of activity creates an illusion that the North Korean nuclear program is under control when it is not.
The Bush administration "can say with a straight face that we have engaged the international community. We have a multilateral approach. But they are not headed to legitimate resolution of the problem," Pritchard said. "They have merely obtained their interim goal, which is to keep Korea off the front pages."
The brewing North Korea crisis is fast becoming a campaign issue, with Democrats calling it a failure comparable to that in Iraq. Presumptive Democratic nominee John F. Kerry said over the weekend on NBC's "Meet the Press" that his No. 1 priority if elected would be to change the approach to North Korea. He has criticized the administration's insistence on only negotiating with Pyongyang in a multilateral setting and has said he would engage immediately in direct talks if elected president.
In a question-and-answer session last week with students at Howard University in Washington, Kerry accused the Bush administration of "ignoring [the North Koreans] for two years, while the world gets more dangerous."
