North Korea Talks Could Resume This Month

Six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis could resume this month, ITAR-Tass reported today (see GSN, Dec. 4).

“A proposal on holding a new round in Beijing in the second half of this month is being considered,” said a source.  Tass reported Dec. 16 as the date under consideration (Reuters/New York Times, Dec. 8).

Still, other reports appeared to cast doubt on talks restarting soon.  A North Korean diplomatic source told ITAR-Tass that U.S. moves to freeze North Korean assets would need to end before Pyongyang would return to the table.

“We will not enter into six-party talks until the atmosphere of pressure is removed and all of our financial operations that have been blocked by the USA are restarted,” the diplomatic source said.

Part of the “atmosphere of pressure” appeared to include a North Korean claim the United States currently deploys nuclear weapons in South Korea.

“[North Korea] has practically no doubts that there are American nuclear weapons in the south of the Korean Peninsula,” the source said.  “Those who claim the opposite are misleading us and the world community” (ITAR-Tass, Dec. 7).

U.S. and South Korean officials quickly denied the claim.

“There is no U.S. nuclear weapon in South Korea,” President Roh Moo-hyun said today.  “Deployment of nuclear weapons is not the presupposition for the provision of the U.S. nuclear umbrella” (Yonhap I, Dec. 8).

“The United States affirms that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade the D.P.R.K. with nuclear or conventional weapons,” U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday (Yonhap II, Dec. 8).

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