US stands firm on North Korea as nuclear talks open
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-09 10:06

The United States stood its ground on Wednesday ahead of a new round of six-party talks on North Korea, saying the country had to abandon its nuclear weapons program before it could win any energy aid.

Washington and Pyongyang are sparring over when the North should open up to disarmament inspectors and whether in return it would receive rewards including a new light-water nuclear reactor for atomic energy.

In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush urged patience at the talks and said the main goal was ending the North's nuclear weapons ambitions.

Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill restated Washington's position on Wednesday in Beijing ahead of the opening session.

"Our delegation has made very clear that first they have got to disarm, create a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, and once they are back in the NPT (Non-proliferation Treaty), with IAEA( International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards, at an appropriate time we will have discussions on the subject of a light-water reactor," he told reporters.

South Korea, China, Japan and Russia are also taking part in the talks, intended to flesh out a basic accord struck in the last round in September, but their success hinges on overcoming distrust between the U.S. and North Korea.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday Bush's reference last weekend to a tyrant in the North was a "blatant violation of the spirit of the joint statement of the six-party talks."

"It deprives us of any trust in the negotiators of the U.S. side to the six-party talks," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

PAINSTAKING

But Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae said the North was still committed to the talks.

"Overall, they have an intention to firmly implement the agreement. But the question is how they will do that in a concrete way and no agreement has been reached on that score," said Sasae, who met North Korean officials late on Tuesday.

Officials and experts predicted turning the vague consensus forged in September into a charter for action would be painstaking and could be easily derailed.

Delegates said the new round of talks was unlikely to produce specific agreements, but would instead lay the groundwork for more detailed bargaining.

"We are going to need a bit of endurance, but I think there is a way to reach an agreement on an implementation plan," South Korean chief negotiator Song Min-soon told reporters.

The countries would aim to meet again in December, he said, likely for working-level talks.

The six-party talks began in 2003 when China sought to broker a peaceful compromise after the United States accused North Korea of covertly building atomic weapons and the North pulled out of the NPT.

In February this year, North Korea said it had nuclear weapons.

In return for scrapping the weapons, Pyongyang has demanded other countries in the talks accept its right to civilian nuclear power and provide it with a light-water reactor.

The United States says it will consider the demand after the North verifiably dismantles its nuclear arsenal.