North, South Korea Pledge to Seek Peaceful Resolution to Nuclear Standoff

North and South Korea pledged today to seek a peaceful end to the standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, but did not set a date for another round of six-nation talks, CNN reported (see GSN, June 22).

“The South and the North have agreed to take real measures for peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue through dialogue as the atmosphere is created with the ultimate goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” said South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said in a statement.

The joint statement was issued following meetings this week between officials from the two nations.  It did not detail the “practical steps” the nations would take on the nuclear issue.

A South Korean spokesman said the delegation from Seoul “hadn’t heard a definite answer” from Pyongyang on when nuclear talks would resume.

South Korea agreed to provide humanitarian aid to the North, according to the statement, and pledged to work with Pyongyang on joint agriculture ventures.

Both sides agreed to meet for another round of inter-Korean talks in September (CNN, June 23).

South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reported yesterday that the North Korean delegation did not comment on a request from Chung to resume six-party talks in July.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun was expected to meet today with members of the North Korean delegation, including chief negotiator Kwon Ho Ung. Pyongyang said Kwon was not acting as an envoy for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (Chosun Ilbo, June 22).

Meanwhile, in a move the Bush administration said was unrelated to the nuclear standoff, talks, the United States said yesterday it would provide 50,000 metric tons of food to North Korea this year, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 20).

“We've been a big supplier of food to the North Korean people and the president has said that he does not believe that food should be used as a diplomatic weapon,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

“We have always had concerns, though, that that food is getting to the people who need it — the people who are starving, the people who are hungry,” McClellan continued. “We want to make sure there are assurances that that food is going to those who need it — not to the government and not to the military in North Korea.”

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli also said the donation was not related to negotiations.

The United States donated 50,000 metric tons of food to North Korea last year, and 100,000 tons the year before (Associated Press/Albany Democrat-Herald, June 23).

The offer of food aid is unlikely to be happenstance, said Joseph Cirincione, nonproliferation director at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“It’s hard to believe the timing is just coincidental,” he said (Reuters/New York Times, June 23).

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said in a statement today that he would like to meet with Kim, the Associated Press reported.

“I’m more than willing to meet with Chairman Kim Jong Il and hope to meet him,” Hill said in the statement (Burt Herman, Associated Press/Washington Times, June 23).

Elsewhere, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry played down reports that Chinese President Hu Jintao might visit North Korea early next month to press for the resumption of six-party talks, Reuters reported.

“I haven’t heard of such a thing,” said spokesman Liu Jianchao.

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