Maintaining this consensus among the major powers is going to be difficult, especially since North Korea can be expected to exploit every ounce of difference between the powers it is negotiating with. But that is not the only obstacle. There are already objections from hard-line voices in Washington such as the former US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, who has called on President George W. Bush to reject the deal with North Korea.

A more fundamental problem is whether any deal can satisfy the North Koreans sufficiently so that they would willingly give up their nuclear weapons. US actions can go some way in assuaging Pyongyang’s sense of insecurity, but China, Pyongyang’s closest ally, too has an incentive to act. If North Korea drags its feet on de-nuclearisation, it could potentially push Japan over the nuclear edge, a possibility that Beijing should not take lightly.

Nevertheless, great powers do not always act in their own best interest. China had a hand in both the North Korean and the Pakistani nuclear programmes. It may have seemed a very clever move to counter India and Japan, but its consequences are that China now faces a nuclear India and a potentially nuclear Japan.

The current crisis has clear lessons also for dealing with the Iranian nuclear problem. There is of course a direct link between North Korea and Iran — there have even been reports that Pyongyang has shared the results of its nuclear tests with Iran. But there are also other equally direct lessons to be learnt by the international community about negotiating with such hold-out states.

... contd.