What is blocking this breakthrough is North Korea's refusal to explain its nuclear relationship with Syria.
The mystery centers on Israel's bombing on Sept. 6, 2007, of a facility in Syria. This was to be the site of a nuclear reactor, U.S. officials believe. North Korea had made a secret agreement to provide technical know-how and some materials for the reactor, although not fissile material. The Israelis destroyed the reactor site -- but neither they nor the U.S. made any public statement about the attack.
Back to the North Korea negotiations: Christopher Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia who has deftly managed the six-party talks, began demanding an accounting of the Syria connection last fall. The North Korean response, as recently as Hill's March 13 meeting in Geneva with North Korean negotiator Kim Gye Gwan, has essentially been: "We never did it, and we won't do it again."
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