Seoul to again press Pyongyang on nuclear talks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-17 08:51

South Korea will press North Korea for a second day on Tuesday to return to six-country nuclear talks when a rare high-level bilateral meeting resumes in the North's city of Kaesong, Seoul's top delegate said.

In the first high-level meeting in 10 months, South Korea on Monday told the North that it was prepared to make a new and serious proposal if Pyongyang returned to stalled negotiations on ending its nuclear ambitions.

Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo declined to elaborate on what the proposal would include, but said Pyongyang's pledge to return to the six-party talks would be a key requirement in normalizing brittle relations between the two.

South Korean Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo, left, shakes hands with his North Korean counterpart Kim Man Gil, right, after they finished their first day meeting at the North Korean border town of Kaesong, Monday, May 16, 2005. [AP]

"To normalize relations, we will stress the point that North Korea must make the decisive move to return to the six-party talks at an early time," Rhee told reporters in Seoul before leaving for the talks.

Pyongyang abruptly agreed at the weekend to meet for the bilateral talks, after breaking off all dialogue last July in anger at Seoul's secret airlift of 468 North Korean refugees from Vietnam and its refusal to let a delegation attend a memorial in the North Korean capital.

North Korea asked for food aid and fertilizer on the first day of talks, and Seoul proposed to discuss the issue further at ministerial level in June.

South Korean Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo, right, looks at landscapes of North Korea mountains with his North Korean counterpart Kim Man Gil, left, after their meeting at the North Korean border town of Kaesong, Monday, May 16, 2005. [AP]

Rhee said on Monday that Seoul was prepared to make a new offer that would ensure substantive progress in the six-country talks.

It would be different from a package of economic aid and security guarantees the South had offered in exchange for a pledge by Pyongyang to abandon all its nuclear programs.

That proposal was made at the third round of the talks in June, which also involved the United States, China, Japan and Russia. A fourth round, originally scheduled for September, never materialized after Pyongyang demanded Washington first withdraw what it called a hostile policy.

Rhee also told North Korea that its possession of nuclear weapons was completely unacceptable and could thwart reconciliation and cooperation between the two.

The North declared in February that it had nuclear weapons and said this month it had extracted spent fuel from a nuclear reactor, a move that could yield more material for weapons.

Urgency has been added to efforts to restart the six-way talks because U.S. officials fear the North may be planning a nuclear test.

Rhee denied knowledge of a report that the North had asked China to arrange a visit to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted diplomatic sources as saying the message was conveyed by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing to Rice last week.

Pyongyang was skeptical of another round of the six-party talks and was seeking direct bilateral talks with Washington, the sources were quoted as saying.

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