President Obama is scheduled to arrive in Seoul on Wednesday for a summit meeting with President Lee Myung-bak. No doubt, North Korea’s nuclear weapons program will play a major role in the forthcoming negotiations. It is noteworthy that Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. envoy to North Korea, will fly to Pyongyang soon.

So, in all probability, the long-awaited direct talks between the United States and North Korea — the first official contacts since the second nuclear test in May — are going to start in the near future. This is good, especially since this time the Americans are coming to the table with a more realistic understanding of the North’s strategies and goals.

People in Washington have finally realized what should have been understood years ago: Under no circumstances is North Korea going to surrender its nuclear weapons.

North Korean leaders believe that they need these weapons both as a deterrent and a diplomacy tool. Only through the existence of the nuclear program can North Korea, a destitute third-rate dictatorship, manipulate the outside world into providing generous aid. It is often suggested that Pyongyang might be lured into surrendering its nukes by a large lump-sum payment that could kick-start its economy (this is, essentially, the official strategy of the South Korean administration). Alas, a cash-for-nukes solution will not be acceptable to Pyongyang: The lump sum payment would be spent quickly, and without nuclear weapons, additional aid would be very moderate and would come with strict conditions about monitoring distribution. Such conditions are not acceptable, from the North Korean perspective, since the regime uses the foreign aid, above all, to reward the faithful and bribe those groups whose discontent might threaten its survival.