Six-Party Talks and Negotiation Strategy: When Do We Get There?

The Six-Party Talks, being the culmination of about fifteen years of diplomatic endeavors that had started with the 1994 Agreed Framework, were hailed as a disappointing mechanism after the September 19, 2005 agreement was dismissed a few days after its signature. After North Korea tested its nuclear weapon in October 2006, the whole process seemed to have been crucified. However, the Six-Party Talks appeared to have been resurrected in light of a new agreement reached during the fifth round of talks held in February 2007. Nevertheless, many still argue that all those years of negotiations have only led to agreements very similar in nature to the 1994 Agreed Framework. Thus, scholarship on the topic of North Korea often looks at independent variables and their effect on the future of Northeast Asia. The outlook chosen in this paper is different from existing works. We do not concentrate on explaining how to obtain change in the dependent variable (outcome of negotiations) but we suggest that while not much progress has been made in terms of implementing agreements, change in the power structure of the system with the United States getting entangled in the War in Iraq, its unwillingness to directly deal with North Korea from 2001 to 2003, Pyongyang's ability to overcome its own economic disaster and domestic political crises, as well as China's willingness to become a prime actor in the Six-Party process have led to parties now being able to talk. Thus, we argue that increased knowledge and familiarity with each actor's position has led to increased cooperation which has then been translated into the acceptance of multilateral rounds of negotiations as a credible structure to deal with instabilities on the Korean Peninsula. In essence, even though no ideal destination has been reached yet, everybody is better off being on the road and searching for a way, instead of being left alone, unable to understand where others would like to go. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]