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U.S. Envoy to Stalled North Korea Nuclear Negotiations Meets With Counterparts in Asia
The top U.S. envoy to stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea, traveling in Asia, said today he was pressing efforts to restart the talks, Reuters reported (see GSN, Jan. 11). “We’re going to discuss a way forward on the six-party talks,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said on arrival in Beijing. Leaving Beijing several hours later, Hill suggested that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il might also be in China, as reported earlier this week. “I understand we have some North Korean visitors here today,” said Hill, adding that he had no plans to meet with the reclusive Kim or other officials from Pyongyang. However, ITAR-Tass reported today the visitor to China might have been a high-level person other than Kim. U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said the United States had few details on Kim’s whereabouts. He expressed hope that the North Korean leader was conducting meetings that might lead his country back to the six-party talks (Reuters, Jan. 12). Hill met his Japanese counterpart, Kenichiro Sasae, yesterday in Tokyo and his South Korean counterpart, Song Min-soon, this morning in Seoul, Agence France-Presse reported. “I had good discussions in Tokyo last night and with the South Koreans this morning and we are all pretty much on the same page,” he said. “We are all pretty much anxious ... on implementing and to implement on the principles as they were laid out in the September agreement,” he added (Agence France-Presse, Jan. 12). Meanwhile, Asian analysts said they do not expect China to exert much pressure on North Korea, the Washington Times reported today. While China is seen to have substantial economic leverage over its impoverished neighbor, Choi Jin-wook of the Institute of National Unification in Seoul told the Times that Beijing is unlikely to threaten financial penalties if North Korea does not return to nuclear talks. “Nothing would convince [the Chinese] to use their leverage,” he said. “China said it does not tolerate North Korea’s nuclear programs, but it does not want North Korea to collapse.” “They (China) don’t want border instability,” said Moon Chung-in, a foreign policy analyst at Yonsei University in Seoul and an adviser to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun (Andrew Salmon, Washington Times, Jan. 12).
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