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The World From Berlin

'Miracles Just Take Longer in Korea'

Caught between a rock and a hard place, North Korea's Kim Jong Il has agreed to give up his nuclear ambitions. But the rogue state's troubles are far from over, German commentators argue.

It took longer than many had hoped and longer than North Korea had promised. But this week, President Kim Jong Il finally began the process of dismantling his country's nuclear facilities, beginning with Friday's televised destruction of a cooling tower at the Yongbyon plant.

The move comes a day after North Korea handed over long-overdue documentation of its nuclear projects to Chinese officials. The accounting was seen as an important benchmark to determine North Korea's sincerity in wanting to abandon its nuclear weapons program. In response, US President George W. Bush immediately lifted some trade sanctions against the country and began the process of removing North Korea from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

There are, however, many in the US who disagree with Bush's efforts to remove North Korea from the terror list. The country still possesses nuclear weapons and few believe they will give them up, which was what the US had originally hoped to achieve.

John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, said: "It's shameful. This represents the final collapse of Bush's foreign policy."

Many around the world would not be sad if that were the case. Indeed, the agreement is being hailed as having come from the negotiating table. There is hope that the precedence could have a positive effect on dealings with Iran over that country's nuclear program. German commentators weigh in on Friday:

In SPIEGEL ONLINE, Andreas Lorenz writes:

"The situation in the supposed worker's paradise is even worse than before. Corruption blooms as many citizens try to keep their heads above water through private enterprise that doesn't wash with Kim's official ideology. Farmers lack fertilizer, so the next harvest will doubtless be disappointing. Right now many international experts are trying to figure out how great the emergency is and whether the reports that people will soon be starving are true."

"The critical question for the future is if and under what circumstances Kim will destroy his bombs. If he gives them up, he'll lose a face-off with the US and anger his medal-bedecked generals."

Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Now the North Koreans are ready to be bought off. But their price has risen dramatically. North Korea has more plutonium, likely has more nuclear weapons and possesses better rockets than it did when George W. Bush took office. And Kim will doubtlessly be holding out his hand in exchange for every tiny step along the way to nuclear disarmament…. But here, as in other areas of politics, the old saying still applies: better late than never."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

The logic of the deal can only be applied to the world's other long-lasting nuclear problem -- Iran -- with great difficulty. For one thing, the Islamic republic is nowhere near the desperate economic circumstances of North Korea. And in light of the ideological mission of Iran's mullahs to promote their ideology and eliminate the state of Israel, it's hard to imagine how a lasting deal would look. It's this combination of ideological fervor and atomic weapons that makes the Iranian case so unusual and so dangerous."

The business daily Handelsblatt asks:

"Does it make political sense to trust in Kim's good will? The dictator is coldly calculating: Kim has to get the sanctions removed to get some money back in the country's coffers. In the past North Korea has only cooperated to the extent that it was absolutely necessary. Today it's fair to ask whether North Korea won't fall back again. Once the trade restrictions are gone, North Korea's motivation for improving its behavior could quickly dissipate."

Center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"When, as promised, the US takes North Korea off the list of states sponsoring terrorism, there won't be much standing in the way of normalized relations -- and that's North Korea's goal. In South Korea they say the North's regime will feel a lot safer when America has a permanent diplomatic mission in Pyongyang. … In the end, a conflict-free process resulted in a miracle. Miracles just take longer in Korea than in other places."

And the capital's left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"This shows that diplomatic efforts can generate results, when all the participants are patient and acting in good faith. The ties to Iran are unmistakable. But the hope that North Korea's example will influence the situation there is misplaced. Atomic weapons play entirely different roles in the strategic calculations of Iran and North Korea. Both want to extract security guarantees from the US. But for Teheran, it's not just about a defense against the US but about the balance of power between regional rivals like its neighbors Pakistan and India, which already have atomic weapons. That makes negotiations a lot more complicated."

-- Andrew Curry, 12:45 p.m. CET