U.S. Team Headed to Pyongyang

ARTICLE: U.S. Team Headed To Pyongyang In Search Of ‘Significant Progress’Washington Post, Blaine Harden, April 22, 2008, Pg. 11

The disclosure-for-aid deal negotiated last fall and due last Dec. 31. For the first time since the United States eased demands on North Korea, a U.S. delegation is headed to the communist state to try to verify the extent of its nuclear program.

Over the weekend, President Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said U.S. concessions to the North could unlock delicate negotiations. Bush has been criticized by some Republicans for yielding too much to the Stalinist government of Kim Jong Il.

“Why don’t we just wait and see what they say before people go out there and start giving their opinions about whether this is a good deal or a bad deal?” Bush said Saturday at Camp David, Md., where he met with Lee.

The recently elected South Korean president added that talks with North Korea require “persistent patience.” “It’s difficult to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs, but it is not impossible,” Lee said.