TOKYO — The abrupt decision by North Korea to return to the negotiating table has raised some hopes that the regime of Kim Jong Il has made a high-level decision to dismantle its nuclear program.
After months of balking, North Korea announced Tuesday through its official news service that it would attend a second round of six-party talks beginning Feb. 25 in Beijing.
"We hope the talks will be successful," U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said in Washington when asked about the announcement, which was confirmed by South Korea and China.
"This time we are expecting some progress," said a South Korean diplomat familiar with negotiations. "North Korea is more open now to the American demand of a complete and verifiable dismantling."
The diplomat, who asked not to be quoted by name, said the North Koreans have been chastened by Libya's agreement in December to dismantle its weapons program and by the current investigation into top Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who allegedly provided North Korea and other nations with key nuclear technology.
The diplomat said the North Koreans are also anxious to reach an agreement before the U.S. presidential election, fearing that a second Bush administration would take a tougher line.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, who was visiting Tokyo this week, told Japanese television he hoped North Korea would eventually learn from the Libyan experience that "you are not excluded from the international community for having had nuclear weapons; you are excluded for keeping them."
The first round of six-party talks -- which included the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas -- took place in August in Beijing and ended in frustration. Efforts to schedule additional negotiations collapsed in December after North Korea named conditions for showing up, such as donations of heavy fuel oil and lifting of economic and political sanctions imposed by the United States.
But negotiations have continued furiously behind the scenes, with concessions made on both sides since August. President Bush has said he would offer North Korea a letter of assurance that the U.S. is not planning an invasion. The North Koreans, meanwhile, have dropped the demand that their conditions be met before talks begin. They also appear to be more mindful of the American insistence that they must completely dismantle their nuclear program and readmit weapons inspectors.
