Nobel wisdom

National Interest, The, Winter, 2002 by Jimmy Carter

JIMMY CARTER: ... what the North Koreans were waiting for was some treatment of their exalted leader with respect and a direct communication....I think he was quite ready. I didn't have to argue with him. When I outlined the specific points that I had been informed in Washington was the administration's position, I presented them to him. And with very little equivocation, he agreed.... I think it's all roses now.... I've known that there were people in Washington who were skeptical about any direct dealing with the North Koreans. They were already condemned as outlaws. Kim Il-sung was already condemned as a criminal.... And it was kind of like a miracle and almost an incredible statement that Kim Il-sung gave me in response to my proposals, and it was hard to believe....

JUDY WOODRUFF: .... Are you absolutely persuaded that the North Koreans are going to honor this agreement, that while the talks are going on that it's not just a matter of buying time on the part of the North Koreans, that they will not secretly pursue the program they were pursuing earlier, nuclear program?

JIMMY CARTER: Judy, I'm convinced. But I said this when I got back from North Korea, and people said that I was naive or gullible and so forth. I don't think I was. In my opinion, this was one of those perfect agreements where both sides won and got what they wanted and there were no-nobody blinked, nobody had to yield.... I think the most important lesson is that we should not ever avoid direct talks, direct conversations, direct discussions and negotiations with the main person in a despised or misunderstood or condemned society who could actually resolve the issue. And we went through this for ten years when nobody in our government would meet or talk to Yasir Arafat. The Norwegians did, and they were the ones that brought the peace agreement last summer....

Jimmy Carter, interview with CNN (upon his return from North Korea), June 22, 1994