New talks on N Korea's nuclear programme begin
Negotiators at talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions set to work today on the contentious details of how the North will disarm and what it will get in exchange.
Before the six-nation talks opened this morning at a Chinese government guesthouse in Beijing, Washington affirmed its refusal even to discuss the North’s demand for a civilian nuclear reactor until after Pyongyang disarms.
The last round of talks ended in September with a pledge by the North to give up nuclear development in exchange for aid and a security guarantee. But the North raised doubts about its willingness to proceed by demanding a civilian nuclear reactor before it disarms.
The Chinese delegate, Wu Dawei, whose government appealed in advance for participants to be ready to make progress in the slow-moving talks, called on negotiators to be flexible and pragmatic.
In an opening statement, Wu asked negotiators to “put forward proposals and ideas so that we will be able to work out an implementation plan that is acceptable to all sides at an early date.”
The US envoy warned that Washington won’t discuss giving the North a reactor until it returns to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and accepts safeguards from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“First they have got to disarm, create a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, and once they are back in the NPT with IAEA safeguards, at an appropriate time we’ll have a discussion about the subject of the provision of a light-water reactor,” said Christopher Hill, a US assistant secretary of state.
Also today, the North blasted Washington for its plan to station a nuclear aircraft carrier in Japan.
Political analysts say they don’t expect any breakthroughs in this round of talks.
The dispute erupted in late 2002 after Washington said North Korea admitted operating a secret uranium enrichment programme in violation of a 1994 deal that gave the isolated country energy aid in exchange for renouncing atomic weapons.
China says it expects the talks this week to last three days and then recess to let diplomats attend an Asian-Pacific economic conference in South Korea in mid-November. The participants are the two Koreas, China, the US, Japan and Russia.
South Korea’s envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, called yesterday for the participants to “take actions mutually that are conducive to create confidence.”
Song met yesterday with the Norh’s envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan. He didn’t give details of the talks, but said, “we compared North Korea’s thoughts with ours. … There are similar points as well as different points.”
North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper today criticised US plans to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan in 2008.
“The Korean people are closely following the US imperialists’ moves to ignite a new war and keeping themselves fully ready to cope with it,” the editorial said, according to a report by the North’s KCNA news agency.
China yesterday tried to moderate expectations, saying the meeting could be considered a success even if it produces no written agreement.
“I do not think that progress of the talks needs to be measured by the signing of a document,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
South Korea’s Song told reporters that the current session was unlikely to result in an agreement but rather would be focused on the preliminary work necessary to get an implementation agreement in the next phase of the fifth round.
Japan’s chief envoy Kenichiro Sasae suggested today that delegates set up two working groups, one to address North Korea’s nuclear dismantlement and verification, and another to discuss economic and energy aid to Pyongyang, the Kyodo news agency reported.
Song said he thought it was too early to set up working groups before a basic framework for progress was in place.
Tensions between the US and North Korea have risen after the North yesterday condemned US President George Bush for calling its leader a “tyrant,” saying the criticism raised doubts about the prospect of the six-nation talks.
Bush made the remarks on Sunday in Brazil while praising Japan as a close US ally in confronting a “tyrant” in North Korea. While he did not mention North Korean leader Kim Jong Il by name, it was widely seen as a reference to him.
“If this is true, what he uttered is a blatant violation of the spirit of the joint statement of the six-party talks which calls for ‘respect for sovereignty’ and ‘peaceful coexistence,”’ a spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.
