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S.Korea pushing pace to resume North nuclear talks
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-22 15:14
South Korea's new chief nuclear envoy will soon travel to countries involved
in talks on ending the North's atomic programmes in an intensifying effort to
restart negotiations, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Ban Ki-moon told reporters Deputy Foreign Minister Chun Yung-woo's travel
would probably help set the stage for the talks, stalled since November because
of a US- North Korea dispute following Washington's crackdown on firms suspected
of aiding illicit North Korean financial activities.
US (L) and North Korean soldiers stand guard
at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone, about 34
miles north of Seoul, November 30, 2005. The six countries trying to end
North Korea's nuclear programs are discussing possibly resuming talks in
March or April, an unnamed South Korean official said on Tuesday.
[Reuters] |
Another South Korean official said there may be fresh momentum between the
United States and North Korea to return to the talks, while the top US
negotiator pressed China and others to do more to bring the North Koreans back
to the table.
China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States are involved in
the talks.
The United States has cracked down on firms suspected of aiding North Korea
in counterfeiting U.S. dollars, money laundering and drug trafficking it says
help to fund the North's nuclear programmes.
North Korea has denied being involved in such activities and said it would be
unreasonable to continue the talks as long as Washington imposes sanctions aimed
at toppling its leadership.
"We expect the overall picture for the six-party talks will surface through
the chief envoy's visit to related countries for close consultations," Ban said.
But he said it was difficult to predict when the talks would resume, even if
"all the countries involved in the talks hope for a speedy resumption." An
unnamed South Korean official said on Tuesday the six countries involved in the
negotiations were discussing possibly resuming the talks in late March or early
April.
There have been bilateral contacts among North Korea, China and the United
States which might unlock the standoff and pave the way for a new round of the
nuclear talks, the official said.
The countries have failed to move forward since agreeing in September to a
set of principles that could eventually see the North give up its nuclear
programmes and receive aid and a promise of better diplomatic ties with
Washington and Tokyo.
That has been the only substantive product of five rounds and seven
cumbersome sessions of talks in more than two years. Often the countries have
seemed to outsiders to exert more effort on agreeing to meet than on negotiating
a deal that works. "We think everybody should try to do more," the top U.S.
envoy to the talks, Christopher Hill, was quoted as saying in the Financial
Times newspaper on Wednesday. "We cannot have a situation where North Korea is
left to develop nuclear weapons."
Hill said China needed to make sure it left no option untried in trying to
coax the North back to the table.
South Korea has said there were signs the North may be positioning itself to
return to the talks.
"It is our assessment that the United States and North Korea are gradually
moving toward resuming the six-party talks," Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok
told a South Korean radio programme.
North Korea has shown signs of easing its condition for resuming the talks,
Lee said. "But it's hard to say conclusively in what form the North will talk
about it and what it will do."
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