North Korea test-fired missiles on US Independence Day, sought
bilateral talks on Thanksgiving, and declared itself a nuclear
power during Chinese New Year celebrations.
So envoys to the six-party talks in Beijing and the not-so-merry
throng of journalists tailing them might be forgiven for wondering
whether the North Korea's penchant for "holiday" diplomacy will
keep them far from home this Christmas.
In China, the holiday passes without formal celebration. But in
the lobbies of the Western hotels where envoys give impromptu news
conferences, there is some holiday spirit in the air.
Giant Christmas trees loom in the background, lights twinkling
as US chief delegate Christopher Hill, Japanese counterpart
Kenichiro Sasae and other envoys discuss weighty issues such as how
to get Pyongyang to renounce nuclear bombs.
But at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where the talks are
taking place behind closed doors around a giant hexagonal table,
the mood is decidedly more Ebenezer Scrooge than Santa Claus.
"Certainly there was nothing I heard in the plenary to fill me
up with a sense of holiday spirit," Hill said on Tuesday.
His comments followed a day of talks at which Pyongyang
presented a wish list of demands it insisted be met before it would
consider disarmament, including an end to UN sanctions, scrapping
of US financial curbs and delivery of a light water atomic
reactor.
Room at the inn
Diplomats at the talks said China was working behind the scenes
to get the negotiations wound up before the holiday. Publicly,
however, Beijing maintains there is still room at the inn if the
need arises.
"If they are willing to spend Christmas here, we welcome them,"
said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
The North Korea's announcements and moves have coincided with
holidays, which is its negotiating tactic, diplomats say.
"Pyongyang is very, very cleverly using holidays to put people
in a weak position," said one Western diplomat. "They do it on
purpose."
The latest crisis erupted in October 2002 when Washington said
it had evidence the North Korea was pursuing a clandestine program
to develop nuclear weapons. International arms inspectors were
expelled that New Year's Eve.
In 2005, North Korea announced it was pulling out of the talks
and declared itself a nuclear state in February, on the second day
of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Chinese traditionally travel far and wide to spend the New Year
holiday with family over meals of dumplings. But Foreign Ministry
officials had to turn around and return to Beijing, where lights
burned at the ministry late into the night.
A senior Chinese diplomat, asked not long afterwards if the
timing was aimed at China, grumbled: "Well, they did not announce
it on Christmas."
Last year, the September talks at which the North Korea agreed
to scrap its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for aid and
security guarantees, dragged through Chusok, one of Korea's most
important holidays, and the Chinese mid-autumn festival.
As talks drag on this week, it remains to be seen whether
frustrated envoys will take Boxing Day literally.?
(China Daily December 21, 2006)