Behind North Korea's bizarre 'Kimdom'

Kim loves movies: His collection of films tops 20,000. He dislikes traveling by plane, and, according to a recent memoir by a former top Russian official, he loves gourmet meals. Gen. Konstantin Pulikovsky accompanied the North Korean leader on lengthy train trips across Siberia in 2000 and 2001, and his new book describes lavish meals of fresh lobster, wine, and, on one occasion, roast donkey. These four-hour affairs ended with rousing singalongs of Soviet-era tunes, led by a chorus of four "lady conductors."

But the "history" Bush was referring to was not so much Kim's personal past as his more recent political moves. The White House charged the North Korean leader with a personal role in cheating on the 1994 Agreed Framework, under which Pyongyang agreed to halt enrichment of uranium in return for fuel oil and other considerations.

North Korea's blatant disregard for its obligations under the 1994 pact - and its open admission of its uranium enrichment program - are maladroit even by Pyongyang standards, say US experts. They have driven the European Union, Japan, and China closer to the US position of no negotiatons, even as South Korea has argued for more open dealings with the North.

But Pyongyang's obvious intent to force a confrontation, as seen in its expulsion of international monitors, is of a piece with its past diplomatic style, say many.

North Korean negotiation "tends to be a shakedown technique with a touch of frenzy," says Nicholas Eberstadt, a Korea expert at the American Enterprise Institute.

The goal: Extract as much aid as possible from other nations, while keeping the current neo-Stalinist regime intact.

Mr. Eberstadt generally approves of the Bush administration's tough line toward this behavior, which might help Pyongyang "unlearn" its blackmail-like approach. But "it would have been nice if the administration hadn't needed a nuclear wake-up call" before fashioning a coherent North Korea policy, he says.

Others believe that it is the US administration, not the North Koreans, that might blink first - and that the US would not really lose anything by doing so. The current US position, essentially, is that North Korea has to give up its nuclear ambitions, and then America might do something in return. Given the North Koreans' evident bullheadedness, that is not going to work, says Mr. Romberg of the Stimson Center.

"Anybody who has spent any time dealing with the North Koreans knows that it isn't going to work to say, 'You go first,' " he says.

At the same time, if Pyongyang takes further steps and begins to stockpile fissile material for a nuclear arsenal, it is possible that the US could be pushed toward military action, according to Romberg.

With North Korea and Iraq on his agenda, Undersecretary of State John Bolton left Friday for a week-long Asia trip.

After talks in Washington early this week with Japanese and South Korean officials, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly will fly to Seoul for further discussions.

South Korea announced it would send Yim Sung-joon, presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security, to Washington from Tuesday to Thursday.

- Wire services

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