Well that didn’t take long…

Report: North Korea could give up nukes for US ties

“SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is willing to give up its nuclear weapons if President Barack Obama agrees to conditions imposed by the communist regime, including establishing formal diplomatic relations, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper said.

The Japan-based Choson Sinbo paper _ considered a mouthpiece of Pyongyang _ said in a story posted on its Web site hours before Obama’s inauguration Tuesday that the North was waiting to see what position the new president would take on the nuclear standoff.

“It is too early to predict whether the Obama administration will endorse the North’s nuclear possession or try to realize denuclearization through normalization of relations,” the paper said. “But what is sure is that the North side is ready to deal with any choice by the enemy nation.”

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The paper is closely linked to Pyongyang and its articles are considered a reflection of the North’s positions.”

This would be true progress, and the President should absolutely pursue it. Even if the DPRK doesn’t give up their nukes, in the long run (and Mr. Obama seems like a long run guy) it will weaken the North Korean regime, reduce poverty in the desperately poor state, and (heaven help me, I sound like a neo-Con) increase liberty in North Korea.

The most humanitarian thing we can do for North Korea is to normalize realtions. The most strategically advantageous thing we can do to North Korea is to liberalize relations (remeber, for something to be advantageous, the other doesn’t have to lose).

Asia will be waiting to see what happens with Barack Obama, and is probably the region of the world least enthusiastic about him. That is not to say that Asia isn’t excited, but Asian relations have been realtively stable under Bush (relatively) and the balance of power has shifted towards Asia with the independent rise of China and the abdication of US authority in the six-party talks (6PT) to China. Even Japan, which saw its power decline relative to China during the Bush adminstration, was able to build up its military in cooperation with the American war on terror.

Normalizing relations withthe DPRK and finally ending the Korean War (which Mr. Obama mentioned in his Inaugural Address) would show strong, rational leadership in Asia and be a bold step towards promoting liberty in Asia.