After a senior diplomat from the U.S. offered a new diplomatic course for North Korea, a government official from the North Korean government accused the U.S. hostile foreign policy against his country as unchanged. The U.S. government is attempting to settle the nuclear weapon issue with North Korea with fresh diplomatic route that contrasts to the harsh rhetoric from the previous administration of former President Bush.

The nuclear weapon issue of North Korea is a serious matter, and I hope that the world leaders, which include Russia and China, could actually make some progress on this issue. North Korea’s response might be incoherent, because clearly the Obama’s approach to North Korea has been different from the previous administration in terms of the diplomatic tone. I am not saying that Obama’s methods are softer, but the new administration is attempting to give tempting incentives to the Stalinist regime to follow a more practical diplomatic course, i.e. “sticks and carrots approach”. The previous administration, except the last couple of months of its period, would not even negotiate with North Korea directly and used a lot of political and economic threats to persuade Pyongyang. There is no doubt that there is a change of strategy in dealing with the North Korean government, and North Korea’s accusations are baseless.

In any case, I expect this international drama continue to unfold, and in the short term I think North Korea is going to be cooperative again.