Paul Carroll discusses North Korea's withdrawal from six-party talks

After international condemnation of its long range missile test, North Korea announced it would boycott the talks on its nuclear program.  However, Ploughshares Program Director Paul Carroll, who was in North Korea in February, told Voice of America in the second of a three-part piece that Pyongyang's announcement was done in a crafty way: "It's very interesting the way they worded their statement. It was very carefully worded in a way that some believe doesn't mean they won't really ever come back. Because they said: 'We won't come back to the six-party talks as they are now constructed.' They've left some wiggle room there."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s criticism of Pyongyang’s overall "provocative and unhelpful statements and actions" during her February trip to South Korea caused displeasure in the North, according to Carroll, who was in North Korea shortly after Secretary Clinton’s trip. "The North Koreans were very clear that they didn't like Secretary Clinton's trip and they basically said: 'We don't see any difference between the new administration and the end of the Bush administration' - which to us was really disappointing," Carroll said. "We tried to make it clear to them that they should be just be a bit patient, that Obama really was a new operator with a new sort of attitude and perspective and that they should expect there would be very different overtures. They weren't buying it." The launch came shortly after.

Listen to part one of the North Korea interviews here.