There are welcome indications that the US is preparing to resume talks with North Korea. The Bush administration's freeze on the dialogue that Bill Clinton had begun was understandable: the new administration clearly needed time to review what its predecessor had done. But further delay is only going to set back the process of promoting change in North Korea through engagement with the rest of the world. The US appears to be close to completing a review of its policy towards North Korea, and there are indications that the only real change from the Clinton administration's policy is going to be an insistence on tougher verification of any restraints on missile development and on the production of nuclear material by the North. The freezing of the dialogue has also stalled the reconciliation talks between Seoul and Pyongyang. Officials from the US, Japan and South Korea, who met recently in Hawaii as part of the Trilateral Co-ordination and Oversight Group on North Korea, were optimistic that these talks could restart soon with a visit to Seoul by North Korea's Kim Jong-il. It is important not to loose sight of what has been achieved so far in bringing North Korea in from the cold. A landmark agreement in 1994 saw North Korea agree to shut down a nuclear facility where plutonium that could be used in warheads was produced. Pyongyang has also said that it is ready to halt its missile programme if it gets help from the US to launch satellites, as well as financial assistance to get its economy growing. This is in addition to the declaration by Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il at their summit last year that the two Koreas would be reunified peacefully. The virtual collapse of the North Korean economy has caused Kim Jong-il to look towards increasing engagement with the outside world. It is essential that this process is not allowed to die. It is only through engagement, and not through isolation, that change can be encouraged in the North. There is a feeling in some quarters that engaging with Kim Jong-il only serves to prop up his regime, and that the right thing to do is to isolate Pyongyang. This is a misconceived strategy. The regime in North Korea has thrived on isolation, and its ruling ideology is based on an autarkic self-reliance. Its people have suffered as a result. It is important for countries in the region, such as Japan, as well as the US and European Union, to demonstrate the benefits to Kim Jong-il of opening to the outside world. The US has a major role to play in this process. Which is why the region waits with keen anticipation for the Bush administration to announce that it is ready to broadly resume where Mr Clinton left off.
