Topic: North Korea

Reuters is reporting that North Korea is ready to scrap its nuclear program in exchange for better relations with the United States, Japan and South Korea. This is a bit of a shift from the DPRK's earlier stance that it would give up its nuclear weapons only if it received a light-water nuclear reactor for power generation, something the United States has been understandable reluctant to provide.

As is so often the case with North Korea, the information arrived in a roundabout way: South Korea's Grand National Party, the main opposition party, announced in a public statement that Ambassador Ning Fukui, China's envoy to Seoul, had said that North Korea was ready to dismantle its nuclear program.

No one yet knows the source of Ambassador Ning's view, or even whether he really said what he's been quoted as saying. If it's true, however, it bodes well for future talks, which will probably start up again within the next month or so.

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