South Korean police charge students demanding withdrawal of U.S. troops from korea during august protest at Yonchen military facility, 37 miles north of Seoul.

Under pressure from these governments, particularly Beijing and Moscow—which have historically been close diplomatic and trade partners of the DPRK—north Korea dropped its previous insistence that such negotiations be preceded by face-to-face bilateral talks with Washington.

At the same time the DPRK restated its demand that the U.S. government withdraw its 37,000 troops from south Korea, and protested the latest round of military exercises involving U.S. and south Korean forces. Military drills between the two armies have sparked a number of student-led protests in the south, including in early August.

Following a meeting with Chinese vice foreign minister Wang Yi, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Alexander Losyukov said August 11 that Pyongyang is “currently showing pleasing flexibility. Our Chinese colleagues also see positive dynamics in the position of the North Korean leadership.”

Losyukov also warned Washington that “the situation when only one side imposes conditions is counter-productive and leads to deadlock.”

“There are a number of issues that have to be solved,” said U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell a few days after north Korea accepted the demand for six-way talks. He listed Washington’s objections to DPRK’s nuclear weapons development program and repeated allegations that Pyongyang is conducting an “illegal drug trade” and “weapons proliferation,” reported Agence France-Presse.

Earlier U.S. president George Bush said, “We are hopeful that (DPRK president) Mr. Kim Jong Il…will make a decision to totally dismantle his nuclear weapons program.”

Over the last year the U.S. government has stepped up its threats and aggressive actions against north Korea, described by Bush as being part of an “axis of evil” along with Iraq and Iran. Washington cut off promised shipments of food and fuel last October. The Japanese and south Korean governments quickly followed suit. These shipments had been negotiated earlier, when Pyongyang agreed to use its nuclear facility at Yongbyon purely for energy purposes and to allow United Nations inspectors on the premises to verify this. As Washington and Tokyo reneged, the DPRK expelled the inspectors, withdrew from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and announced it was developing nuclear weapons.

At the beginning of this year the Pentagon reinforced its air power in the region, stationing 24 nuclear-capable bombers on Guam within striking distance of the DPRK. More recently the U.S. government announced plans to redeploy its 2nd Infantry Division southward, freeing the U.S. command to launch attacks against the north without having its ground forces become targets of retaliatory artillery fire.

The talks in late August are scheduled to begin a couple of weeks after the annual Ulchi Focus Lens exercises, which involve almost 80,000 U.S. and south Korean troops. Using computer simulations and on-the-ground maneuvers, the war games follow a script of large-scale fighting with DPRK forces.

Recent U.S. military drills have sparked protests by hundreds of south Korean youth at military facilities in Seoul and between the capital and the so-called demilitarized zone that divides the Korean peninsula. The latter include the bases at Yonchen and Pochun. The students demanded the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from south Korean soil.

Pyongyang defended protesters who were arrested after having “trespassed” on the bases, and demanded the immediate pullout of all U.S. forces from Korea. Such a move, it said, was necessary for “the peace of Korea, the security of the Korean nation and its independent reunification.”  
 
 
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