 | | 07-09-2005, 04:08 PM |
|
#1 |
| Extreme Fan
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 2,010
| N. Korea to resume international talks
From USAToday.com... Quote: Official: N. Korea's plans to discuss nuclear program
BEIJING (AP) — Ending a yearlong boycott, North Korea agreed on Saturday night to resume international talks this month about its nuclear weapons program, a senior U.S. official said.
North Korea conveyed its decision as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beijing for discussions with Chinese leaders about North Korean issues.
North Korea's vice foreign minister, Kim Kye Gwan, disclosed his government's decision during a dinner with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill in the Chinese capital. The talks are to resume during the week of July 25, the U.S. official said.
A similar announcement came from the North's official Korean Central News Agency, which said talks would get under way July 25.
"The U.S. side clarified its official stand to recognize (North Korea) as a sovereign state, not to invade it and hold bilateral talks within the framework of the six-party talks," KCNA reported.
Possibly as a confidence building measure, Rice refrained during the trip from Washington from negative rhetoric about North Korea, reaffirming the U.S. has no plans to attack the country and recognizes it as a sovereign state.
North Korea has reacted angrily to Rice's designation of North Korea in January as an "outpost of tyranny." Last week a senior North Korean official demanded a retraction.
The Bush administration official, who is accompanying Rice on her four-nation tour of Asia, said Kim told Hill that the purpose of the late July meeting would be ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons and that North Korea was intent of making progress toward this goal.
The U.S. has tried for more than a year to persuade North Korea to return to the talks, which also involve China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
There were three rounds of discussions during 2003 and 2004, but none since. During the previous rounds, North Korea showed little inclination to make concessions on either of the nuclear weapons programs it is thought to possess.
One is plutonium-based, the second is a uranium-based program which North Korea acknowledged to U.S. officials in 2002. It has since retracted that acknowledgment.
The U.S. has sought the verifiable dismantling of the North Korean programs in exchange for economic benefits from the United States, Japan, South Korea and other donor countries.
The dismantling of the North Korean programs has been a priority for the U.S. under President Bush. U.S. officials contend that possession of such weapons has the potential to destabilize Asia. They also are concerned that North Korea could export its weapons technology to the Middle East and other regions.
Before the breakthrough on talks was reached, Rice told reporters traveling with her that she believes China shares her commitment to a negotiated end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
"When it comes to making sure that over time we get a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula, that's just a very high priority for the Chinese," she said en route to Beijing, her first stop.
Rice's trip was aimed primarily at finding ways to encourage North Korea to return to the talks.
She planned meetings Sunday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.
China, as the principal source for food and energy aid to North Korea, has more leverage over its neighbor than do other parties in the talks.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph said recently that the Bush administration believes that "China can do more to get them (the North Koreans) to eliminate their nuclear weapons program."
Rice also plans stops in Japan, South Korea and Thailand, where she visits for the resort city of Phuket to survey the extent of reconstruction efforts following last December's devastating tsunami.
| That sounds like a bit of good news. __________________ quaeque ipse miserrima vidi et quorum pars magna fui (All these terrible things I saw, a great part of which I was) - Virgil, The Aeneid |
| Reply With Quote |
