h Korea “is gradually asking for higher prices.”
Using North Korea’s formal name, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, or DPRK, he said the North Korean demand that they have in hand the $25 million previously frozen in a Macao bank before they would shut down the Yongbyon facility “is only a symptom of a trend.”
As if on cue, the next day a North Korean newspaper published in Tokyo asserted: “The stark reality is that even after the ’13 February’ agreement, the DRPK and the United States are still in hostile relations.” The DPRK, the Choson Sinbo continued, “has consistently maintained its position that the United States should physically prove that it has changed its hostile policy.”
Experienced Korea hands explained that meant withdrawing American military forces from South Korea and Japan, abrogating the US security treaties with Japan and South Korea, negotiating a peace treaty to replace the truce that ended the Korean War of 1950-53, ending all financial sanctions on North Korea, and establishing full fledged diplomatic relations.
None of which, it has to be said, should be much of a surprise. Not that the talks were actually making progress anyway.
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