North Korea 'ready to resume nuclear talks'
North Korea could rejoin six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons programmes within weeks, a US Congressional delegation said today after a trip to the communist state.
“Our honest impression is that the DPRK is ready to rejoin the six-party process,” said Republican Rep Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, during a press conference in Seoul, South Korea.
Weldon was using the acronym for the North’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Weldon led a bipartisan delegation that held talks in Pyongyang with North Korea’s number two leader, Kim Yong Nam, foreign minister Paek Nam Sun and vice foreign minister Kim Kye Gwan, who is also North Korea’s chief representative to nuclear negotiations.
The United States, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia have struggled to arrange a new round of talks aimed at persuading the North to abandon its nuclear weapons programmes.
The three prior rounds, hosted by China since 2003, made no breakthroughs. The last round was held in June.
“I am convinced, as are all my colleagues, that if in fact we move along the process that we are moving today, the six-party talks can and will resume in a matter of weeks, as opposed to months or years,” Weldon said.
Weldon, who spoke on behalf of his delegation, called the four-day trip an “overwhelming success”.
| Related Stories: |
|
