As things stand now, it’s entirely unclear whether the North Koreans will meet their first obligation set forth under the February 13 agreement–the shutdown of the country’s main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. After nearly four years of Six Party Talks with the North Koreans, the reclusive regime seems interested only in stalling for more time and extorting aid from the West in the form of fuel oil and food. But what if the West, instead of trying to disarm the rogue regime, merely sought to do business there. The story of the Baltika Beer Company might be instructive. The Russian brewery shipped 72,000 bottles of Baltika No. 5 Gold to Korea last week, the first delivery of its kind. How long did it take for Baltika to tap the North Korean market? Longer than it took the Bush administration to bribe the North Koreans into another nuke deal. Negotiations began in 2001, when Kim Johg-Il himself visited the brewery while in St. Petersburg. The next year he sent engineers back to St. Petersburg “to study brewing methods.” According to officials at Baltika, reaching an accord took a further three years. That only takes us up to 2005–and there’s no explanation for what held up the first shipment for another two and a half years. Dmitry Kistev, head of Baltika’s export sales, explained the company’s strategy: “The foam drink brewed in the city that’s the cradle of socialist revolution — and that’s how Baltika will be positioned in North Korea — will be available for foreign tourists as well.” At 80 cents a bottle, it’s doubtful that Baltika will reach a wide swath of the North Korean “market.” And, given that it takes Kim six years to order a beer, one has good reason to be skeptical that the regime will dismantle its nuclear program after just four years of giving us the run around.
