An Even Edgier Pyongyang

The scheduled U.S.-North Korea talks were focused on missile proliferation, but what dropped was a bomb--the defection to American officials of two of Pyongyang’s key diplomats. The defectors are the ambassador to Egypt and his brother, a commercial counselor at the North Korean mission in Paris, both of whom were accompanied by their families.

The ambassador, Chang Sung Gil, is presumed to have key information about North Korean missile sales to Syria and Iran. He was formerly a vice foreign minister in Pyongyang, just the type of inside man that the Americans, deeply concerned about stability in the Middle East, would want to talk to. But there will be a price.

Pyongyang, always a buttoned-up capital, is likely to close down even tighter as a result of these defections and the bolting last February of Hwang Jang Yop, a ranking theorist who defected to South Korea. What trust remains among the ruling Communist hierarchy must be even more fragile, a dangerous situation.

So the Americans, though disappointed, were not surprised when a North Korean delegation in New York to discuss Pyongyang’s missile sales was called home in the midst of the talks. “We see no linkage between the defection and the missile talks, and we believe it is in North Korea’s interest to remain engaged,” said White House spokesman Barry Toiv.

No doubt it is, but the defections are bound to delay the process, and the Americans must have expected that. The Chang brothers are the birds in hand, and Washington should make the most of it.