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US, N. Korea hold their positions tight at 6-party talks
(Agencies/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2004-02-25 15:34
Envoys from the United States and North Korea staked out sharply different
positions at the start of six-way talks on Wednesday in Beijing on a crisis over
Pyongyang's nuclear programs, underscoring the difficulties of a major
breakthrough.
Top negotiators
from (L-R) the United States, Japan, North Korea, China, South Korea, and
Russia, shake hands before the opening session of the second round of the
six-party talks [Xinhua] |
The United States stood fast, calling for the irreversible, verifiable
dismantling of North Korea's plutonium and uranium weapons programs and
repeating that it did not intend to attack N. Korea.
North Korea and the United States are expected to
hold bilateral talks Wednesday on the sidelines of a six-country meeting about
the North's nuclear program, said Lee Soo-hyuck, the leader of South Korea's
delegation. Sources said the meeting would be held Wednesday afternoon at the
state guesthouse where the main talks were held earlier. The U.S. delegation is
led by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, while Pyongyang's is headed by
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan.
After half a year of shuttle diplomacy, delegates from North and South Korea,
the United States, China, Russia and Japan shook hands before taking their
places at a hexagonal table in a guarded guesthouse for the second such meeting
brokered by China.
China swiftly took on the role of honest broker.
"As the talks deepen, we will face more difficulties and meet more
challenges. The talks aim to enlarge the consensus, not to highlight the
differences, to settle problems, not to escalate conflict," said Chinese Vice
Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
North Korea said it hoped the talks would create "a positive result" and
narrow the gap between Pyongyang and Washington, said its top negotiator, Deputy
Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan,
POLITICAL WILL NEEDED
"The United States seeks the complete, verifiable and irreversible
dismantlement of all the DPRK's nuclear programs, both plutonium and
uranium-based," U. S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said.
Many analysts see little hope of substantive progress at the first-day talks
since an inconclusive round last August because of deep mistrust between the two
protagonists and disagreement over the suspected uranium enrichment program.
North Korea's Kim said political will at this round "would serve as a basis
for narrowing down the existing differences of position and opinions between the
DPRK and the United States and break the current impasse."
The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when U.S. officials said North
Korea admitted to a covert program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. The
North Korea 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.
However, it warned on Tuesday that any attempt to raise the "purely
fictitious" uranium issue would only prolong the crisis.
DEMANDING COMMITMENTS
In a move to reassure Pyongyang, which has demanded security guarantees from
the United States in the form of a non-aggression pact, Kelly said North Korea
had no need for concern.
"The United States has no intention of invading or attacking the DPRK," he
said, using North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea.
Washington was not alone in seeking clarity on the uranium.
"North Korea must make commitments to promptly abandon its nuclear programs
and activities, including the enriched uranium program, and fully disclose its
nuclear programs," Japanese delegate Mitoji Yabunaka said.
South Korea's Lee Soo-hyuck said a swift solution was crucial. "We need to
send a clear message. The message is that a nuclear-free Korean peninsula is not
in the distant future.
Signs have emerged that Pyongyang's stance may be softening.
North Korean diplomats held informal talks this month in Vienna with
officials from the U.N. nuclear watchdog on a possible resumption of inspections
of the country's nuclear complex at Yongbyon, Japan's Kyodo news agency said on
Tuesday.
This was the first substantial contact between North Korea and the
International Atomic Energy Agency since inspectors were ousted in December
2002.
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