Negotiations to make the Korean Peninsula permanently free of nuclear weapons are due to resume in Beijing in September. China, the United States, Japan, Russia, and North and South Korea will meet for the fourth round of the six-party talks, following recent calls from the US for Pyongyang to emulate Libya in dismantling its nuclear and chemical weapons programme under international supervision.

After announcing that it would do so last December, Tripoli moved quickly to carry out its promise, and allowed outside verification to prove it. In a speech in Seoul last week, the US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton, said that if North Korean leader Kim Jong-il followed the example of Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, it would mean improved relations with the US, and with the international community in general.