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North Korea Ready to Resume Six-Party Nuclear Negotiations, Chinese Foreign Minister Says
The North Korean leadership has expressed its readiness to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said today (see GSN, Feb. 24). Li said Chinese leader Hu Jintao conveyed a request to the North Koreans that they resume negotiations, according to the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency. “It was noted in the message that it was necessary to maintain the process of talks so that the Korean Peninsula was free of nuclear weapons,” said Li (Interfax-Kazakhstan/BBC Monitoring, Feb. 25). South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said today his country was committed to a peaceful resolution of the standoff, despite North Korea’s declaration earlier this month that it has a nuclear arsenal, Agence France-Presse reported. “Some unexpected situation took place, but the fundamental issue has not changed greatly,” Roh said, in his first public statement on the announcement by Pyongyang (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Feb. 25). Meanwhile, among the more creative proposals for putting pressure on Pyongyang, a Japanese lawmaker yesterday suggested Japan stop exporting sweet, delicious melons to North Korea. “We could stop the melon trade,” said Ichita Yamamoto, of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. “Then Kim Jong Il wouldn’t be able to eat delicious melons and he would be furious.” “He would ask, ‘Where are my melons?’” (Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press/ Yahoo!News, Feb. 24).
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