Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
Check the last line, people.
BEIJING, Sept. 1 - The Chinese official who played host to six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program said today that the United States was the "main problem" in reaching a diplomatic solution to the crisis, echoing the North's bitter assessment about why the talks had ended in acrimony.
Asked about the obstacles that had arisen during the talks in Beijing last week, Wang Yi, a vice foreign minister who was China's chief delegate at the negotiations, replied, "America's policy toward the D.P.R.K. - that is the main problem we are facing." North Korea's formal name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Mr. Wang made the comment to reporters during a conference he was attending in Manila, and it was not immediately clear if he spoke for China's Foreign Ministry, which has sought to maintain a neutral position while urging both parties to continue negotiating.
But the remark may reflect frustration that the United States offered no concessions to North Korea during the talks, which were organized after extensive diplomacy by Chinese officials.
The Bush administration has maintained that North Korea must dismantle its nuclear program before discussions can begin on any benefits it might receive for doing so. North Korea says it is willing to give up its nuclear program, but only if the United States offers a nonaggression treaty first.
Meanwhile, at the Boston Globe:
By Bryan Bender, Globe Correspondent, 9/1/2003
WASHINGTON -- After more than two years of trying to isolate reclusive North Korea, the Bush administration is preparing to offer Pyongyang diplomatic relations, security guarantees, and other concessions if it agrees to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, according to administration officials involved in internal deliberations.
The approach marks a major policy shift toward what President Bush has labeled a member of the "axis of evil." The Bush White House broke with the Clinton administration's carrot-and-stick approach, preferring to stand firm against North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, whom it accused of violating a 1994 agreement to freeze Pyongyang's weapons program.
The administration, however, has little to show for the confrontational approach. North Korea pulled out of a global treaty governing atomic weapons earlier this year and is now threatening to conduct a nuclear test.
Bolstered by new talks last week, a consensus has emerged in Washington that the most effective way to defuse one of its most challenging foreign policy crises is to reemphasize the Clinton approach of possible rewards in return for North Korean cooperation, the officials said.
"Now [the administration] has learned the hard way that the solution to this is going to be negotiation," said a State Department official who asked not to be named. "The approach until now has been terribly inefficient and wasteful. We could have been here two years ago."