The world waits for an answer and North Korea stalls, then suddenly makes a provocative move. It heightens tensions, threatens and gains concessions. In Pyongyang's latest display of sabre rattling - its threat to test fire a long-range missile - we see the same chain of events re-occur with utter predictability. It would be difficult to find an instance of North Korea's brinkmanship or blackmailing tactics that resulted in a win for South Korea and the United States. This is a game Pyongyang has mastered and its record is flawless.
The next round of talks between US and North Korean officials, scheduled next month in Berlin, promises more of the same. Why should we expect a breakthrough?
'In relations with North Korea, the US and South Korea haven't learned anything from the past,' says Roh Jae-won, a retired South Korean diplomat who has spent a lifetime analysing North Korea's negotiating tactics.
'Every year the US and South Korea deal with North Korea as if everybody shares the same logic and this is clearly not the case.'
Washington and Seoul seek compromise, give and take, whereas Pyongyang adopts a categorically unyielding approach, says Roh.
Lee Jong-heon, an analyst at the Yonhap North Korea division says negotiators of the Stalinist regime follow basic rules of tough talking explicitly outlined by the late leader, Kim Il-sung.
'Negotiators must always employ divergent tactics of attack, which will force the enemy into a deadlock; then, when the enemy is confused and weakened he will submit,' said the Great Leader.
In his memoirs, US Admiral C Turner Joy, who participated in the 1951-1953 armistice negotiations, catalogued a list of North Korea's 'rules' that reflect this fundamental principal. To name a few: 'The creating of "incidents" calculated to provide advantage for its negotiating tactics; delaying progress toward consummation of agreements with the purpose of weakening the position of the opponent; producing "spurious" issues to use them as bargaining points.'
If North Korea's negotiating strategies have been an open book for all these decades, then why does South Korea, and particularly the US, sulk in frustration before once again falling into the North's trap?
'The United States makes the mistake of giving into the North because it vastly underrates President Kim Jong-il and his regime,' says Kim Sang-yoon, a North Korea expert. 'Obviously Washington is fumbling along, giving North Korea enough attention to avoid war; but to find a really smart solution to their [North Korea's] tactics, Washington needs new understanding in place of the old assumptions,' he says.
These old assumptions, says Kim, paint North Korea in a black-and-white world, where there are no choices between giving concessions or allowing a volatile Kim Jong-il to wage a suicidal war.
Says Kim Sang-yoon: 'Kim Jong-il is actually a very clever man who uses the threat of a missile launch, for example, on many different levels. While the US sees the missile in terms of peace and war, Kim Jong-il sees it as a way to accomplish many objectives: To build his propaganda machine, to manipulate the inner workings of the power elite, to boost missile sales, to create a hostile atmosphere that he can use to his advantage. How can anyone deal with Kim Jong-il if they don't understand his motives?'
By launching missiles and precipitating armed clashes, like the one between the North and South in the West Sea in July, North Korea has created an aura of terror that stymies efforts to acquire a new understanding, analysts say.
'North Korea is playing a rational game of irrationality,' says Kim Tae-woo, a nuclear policy specialist and North Korea expert. 'It is very obvious that a country like North Korea would complicate things so we can't figure out a solution to the problems they create.'
Still, the conflicts Pyongyang cooks up spring from the same basic tenants of negotiating that Kim Il-sung set in motion 48 years ago. Is it possible to learn from years of failed negotiations? Even the two major accords, the 1991 Basic Agreement and the 1994 Agreed Framework, are under continuous threat of being permanently undermined.
'The United States has set its sights so low it thinks just by talking it is making progress,' says Kim Sang-yoon. 'All these talks are really a joke. It is easy to see how North Korea is controlling events so they can exploit fears and get free money.'