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Day 2: S. Korea proposal dominates talks on nuke issue
South Korea's proposal for a three-stage end to Pyongyang's nuclear programs on Thursday dominated a second day of six-way talks marked by conciliatory rhetoric but starkly differing positions.
No signs emerged of any breakthrough from a rare one-on-one meeting between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and North Korea's negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan, on the sidelines of the talks on Wednesday.
Host China said some consensus emerged after the first day of talks, a result of six months of delicate diplomacy after an inconclusive first round last August.
The rhetoric was conciliatory at the opening meetings, which provided a chance for the parties -- China, the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia -- to lay out their positions on Pyongyang's atomic ambitions that may have already resulted in the creation of two nuclear bombs.
But stark differences remained as the talks got under way. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said nothing as he left his hotel for the talks.
The two protagonists -- Washington and Pyongyang -- clung to opposing positions on the issue of North Korea's suspected uranium enrichment program for nuclear bombs, which Pyongyang denies.
Kelly insisted on the irreversible, verifiable dismantling of all North Korea's atomic arms programs, but said Washington did not intend to attack the country it has branded part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and pre-war Iraq.
Asked if there had been any agreement after the first day of talks, Kelly told Reuters late on Wednesday: "Oh no, we are still hard at work."
An editorial in the China Daily newspaper was cautious. "It may be too early to expect a breakthrough from the new round of talks. But that the position of each party is clearer is positive," it said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told the envoys at a banquet on Wednesday night they should "not allow differences to impede the process of the dialogue, even divert the direction of seeking political solution to the problem," the official Xinhua news agency reported.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington the opening session had been useful and he confirmed the hour-long afternoon meeting with the North Koreans.
"I think the purpose of side meetings at talks like this is to try to discuss the elements of the bigger discussion and try to look for what the parties that are talking on the side can do to make progress in those discussions in the more formal sessions," he said.
South Korea's delegate to the talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Lee soo-hyuck, told reporters Thursday's talks would focus on the three-phase proposal for resolving the impasse that he proposed on Wednesday.
Under the plan, the North would pledge its intention to dismantle its nuclear programs and other countries would meet its security concerns. The second phase would be implementation and the third would address other outstanding issues.
The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted to a covert program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
The North has since denied such a scheme, but it has offered to freeze a plutonium-based program that it reactivated when it pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty last year.
North Korea said on Wednesday it hoped the talks would create "a positive result" and narrow the gap with Washington.
But it has warned that any attempt to raise the "purely fictitious" uranium issue would prolong the crisis.
North Korea has said it could freeze its program in return for compensation. The Bush administration, facing an election this year, says it will not reward the country for bad behavior.
The New York Times said South Korea would offer the North economic aid in return for a pledge to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons facility. |
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