Americans cool on North Korea talks
The US is open to talks with North Korea – but only if it complies with UN Security Council resolutions, senior officials have said.
After months of threatening to wage a nuclear war, North Korea did a U-turn yesterday and issued a surprise proposal to talk to the US – its No. 1 enemy.
But the invitation from North Korea’s National Defence Commission, the powerful governing body led by leader Kim Jong Un, comes with caveats.
There must be no preconditions and no demands that Pyongyang give up its prized nuclear assets unless Washington is willing to do the same – ground rules that make it hard for the Americans to accept.
Washington responded by saying that it is open to talks – but only if North Korea shows it will abide by Security Council resolutions and live up to its international obligations.
“As we have made clear, our desire is to have credible negotiations with the North Koreans, but those talks must involve North Korea living up to its obligations to the world, including compliance with UN Security Council resolutions, and ultimately result in denuclearisation,” US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
“We will judge North Korea by its actions, and not its words and look forward to seeing steps that show North Korea is ready to abide by its commitments and obligations.”
North Korea’s call for “senior-level” talks between the Korean War foes signals a shift in policy in Pyongyang after months of acrimony.
Pyongyang ramped up the anti-American rhetoric early this year after its launch of a long-range rocket in December and a nuclear test in February drew tightened UN and US sanctions.
The US and ally South Korea countered the threats by stepping up annual springtime military exercises, which prompted North Korea to warn of a “nuclear war” on the Korean Peninsula.
But as tensions began subsiding in May and June, Pyongyang began making tentative, if unsuccessful, overtures to re-establish dialogue with Seoul and Washington.
Earlier this month, it proposed high-level talks with South Korea – the first in six years. But plans for two days of meetings last week in Seoul dramatically fell apart even before they began amid bickering over who would lead the two delegations.
In Washington, officials say there will be no talks just for talks’ sake.
President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said Washington has been “quite clear” that officials support dialogue and have engaged Pyongyang in talks in the past.
But “those talks have to be real. They have to be based on them living up to their obligations, to include on proliferation, on nuclear weapons, on smuggling and other things,” he said.
“And so we’ll judge them by their actions, not by the nice words that we heard yesterday.”
He said smooth talk will not help Pyongyang evade UN sanctions supported by Moscow and Beijing,
North Korea’s two traditional allies. UN Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from developing its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
