North Korea Agrees to Multilateral Talks

After months of diplomatic posturing and much bravado, North Korea and the US have agreed to sit down together to find a way to deal with Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, its security fears, and its urgent need for fuel and food aid. Representatives of China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan will be joining the US and North Korea in multi-lateral talks, a format Washington has insisted upon as the only way to secure an enforceable and lasting resolution to North Korea's nuclear arms buildup. North Korea, however, claims that at the same time it will also be holding bilateral talks directly with the US, a format Pyongyang has sought since revealing its revived nuclear program last October. Details and timing for the talks have yet to be nailed down, but with confirmations of the multilateral arrangement coming from Washington, Pyongyang, and Seoul, it appears that the nations of Northeast Asia can breathe a collective sigh of relief that some substantial effort is being made to de-nuclearize the Korean peninsula. – YaleGlobal