US and South Korea in a rut

North Korea is willing to get on with talks on its nuclear programme without conditions. But the US and South Korea remain deaf to Pyongyang's call.
Instead they put forward 'conditions' that clearly show, the two allies do not want to go back to the negotiating table. Not only that, Washington and Seoul had pledged food aid to the DPRK, but withdrew their offer. Again, GuamDiary sees a lack of good faith on the Obama administration and the Lee Myung bak government.
As we keep repeating, the US and ROK have coordinated strategy on how to deal with North Korea. It is something out of a Cold War play book which never really worked. The object all sublime is to injure North Korea through economic sanctions, denial of food aid and fertilisers, as well as encircling it militarily. The unfinished navy base at Kangjung on Jeju may be the last segment in the joint US ROK military 'cordon sanitaire' around North Korea. Looking at the map, it is and will remain incomplete without the cooperation of China and Russia, which the two countries will not get.
The joint US ROK 'Drang nach Norden' policy in the propaganda war they engage in against the DPRK is an exercise in turning global terror into a commodity and a spear of the two allies foreign policy, with very mixed and questionable results.
If anything, Washington and Seoul are fighting a rearguard action putting off the day--which may be sooner than they think--when they're going to have to talk with Pyongyang without conditions.
Like true believers, armed with specious ideology thought up by their clerisy of North Korea watchers, they are blind to their own weaknesses and the failure of their ideas.