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South Korea Backs Preliminary Meeting Before Resuming North Korean Nuclear Talks
Conducting a preliminary meeting this month before returning to the full six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program could be important to the process, a South Korean official said today (see GSN, Dec. 7). The meeting has been proposed for Dec. 19 on the South Korean island of Jeju, the Associated Press reported. “It is not confirmed yet,” said Unification Minister Chung Dong-young. “But when it is, it will be very meaningful” (Associated Press , Dec. 8). However, South Korea would not schedule such a meeting without Pyongyang’s participation, the Yonhap News Agency reported yesterday. “Basically, we believe such a meeting is possible when all the six parties concerned regard it as efficient,” said a Foreign Ministry official. Analysts predicted that a meeting was unlikely to take place this month, given the recent exchange of tough rhetoric between Pyongyang and Washington (Yonhap/BBC Monitoring, Dec. 7). Meanwhile in Washington, Japanese opposition leader Seiji Maehara said yesterday that the United States has sought Chinese and Japanese support for a three-part plan of “defensive measures” against North Korea, Kyodo News reported today. U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph reiterated the points in a meeting with Japanese officials yesterday, in which Joseph likened North Korea to “a criminal enterprise,” Maehara said. Another Japanese opposition official accompanying Maehara said financial sanctions are included in the plan and that Washington has provided details of alleged money laundering by North Korea via a Macau bank. Surveillance of Pyongyang’s WMD proliferation activities via the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led multinational interdiction effort on the high seas, is included in the measures, the official said. The third measure involves missile defenses, vaccine development and other countermeasures to the unconventional weapon threat from the North, he said (Kyodo/Yahoo!News, Dec. 8). Elsewhere, former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said Pyongyang and Washington should take simultaneous measures to reduce mistrust. “North Korea must completely give up its nuclear weapons program and receive thorough inspections,” he said. “At the same time, the United States must provide security assurances to North Korea and lift sanctions on its economy” (Associated Press , Dec. 8).
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