From San Francisco Chronicle:
China’s debut on the global diplomatic stage bore fruit this week with the deal it helped bring about to get North Korea to curb its nuclear program. Yet Beijing’s job has just begun.
“China has an enormous investment in this process succeeding, even more so now that there has been an agreement,” said David Zweig, director of the Center on China’s Transnational Relations at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
For the deal to succeed, China must continue its pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his government, analysts say. If China, the United States or the three other countries participating in the six-nation talks — South Korea, Russia and Japan — back off or ease up on enforcing the deal with North Korea, this first step will accomplish little.
Although the major points of the agreement reportedly were primarily brokered in Germany last month between North Korea and the United States, China will continue to provide a platform for negotiations as the deal’s timetable proceeds. [Full Text]
