Chinese Ambassador Says North Korea Would Give Up Nuclear Program for Better Foreign Relations

The prospect of better relations with Japan, South Korea and the United States could lead North Korea to eliminate its nuclear weapons program, China’s ambassador in Seoul said today (see GSN, Dec. 1).

Ambassador Ning Fukui said the “three keys” to North Korean disarmament are mutual trust between Pyongyang and Washington, normalized relations with Tokyo and an improved relationship with Seoul, the Associated Press reported.

“I believe that North Korea is willing to scrap its nuclear weapons,” Ning told Park Geun-hye, head of South Korea’s opposition Grand National Party (Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press/Times Leader, Dec. 2).

Meanwhile, U.S. officials remain open to meeting with North Korean representatives to discuss the Treasury Department’s actions against firms suspected of involvement in illegal activities on Pyongyang’s behalf, Reuters reported.

“The offer still stands. And it would appear that the North Korean government isn't interested in accepting this offer for such a briefing,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

McCormack added that the United States is justified in stopping illegal activities and “never offered to engage in negotiations with North Korea on this matter.”

McCormack said nuclear negotiations would not stop the United States from enforcing the law. 

“We are not going to fail to speak out or fail to act, concerning issues that are of concern to us,” he said (Reuters/New York Times, Dec. 1).

South Korea’s head envoy to the nuclear talks, Song Min-soon, said today that the U.S. position over Pyongyang’s counterfeiting of U.S. dollars must not affect the six-party talks, Agence France-Presse reported.

Song said he plans to meet with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei to this week discuss strategies to ensure this does not occur. 

“The issue of sanctions against North Korea has nothing to do with the six-party talks and the two issues must not be linked to each other. We will discuss with China on how to obviate such negative impacts,” Song said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Dec. 2).

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