A U.S. expert on Korean affairs predicted Tuesday that resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff would prove to be a long and tedious process, as neither the Bush administration nor Pyongyang is hastening to reconvene stalled six-party nuclear talks.
Writing for the Defence News, the director of the U.S. Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, Larry Wortzel, projected that Bush's new foreign policy team would tackle the North Korean issue step by step within a multilateral framework.
Wortzel also asserted that Kim Jong-il would be in no hurry to resume talks, at least not until Bush's presidential inaugural speech early next year, which is expected to provide the communist regime with necessary clues to forge its approach toward Washington.
The Korea expert also predicted that working-group nuclear talks would still be held, despite the fact that it will take time for the new U.S. Cabinet lineup to familiarize itself with its tasks.