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Officials to Discuss North Korea Nuclear Issue on Sidelines of Japan Security Conference
A private security conference in Japan next week is expected to provide an opportunity for meetings between officials from the six nations involved in North Korea nuclear disarmament talks, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 29). Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator on the issue, and representatives from China, Japan, Russia, North Korea and South Korea are expected at the conference on Monday, said Michael Boyle, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Hill does not plan to conduct bilateral meetings with the North Korean delegation, Boyle said. Hill “expects to meet with the heads of the Japanese and South Korean delegations to the six-party talks on the margins of those meetings,” Boyle said (Joseph Coleman, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, April 4). China said today that the mutual mistrust between North Korea and the United States continues to delay resumption of the six-party talks, the German press agency reported. “The problem is lack of mutual trust between the D.P.R.K. and the United States, and the failure to resolve their disputes,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. “As the major mediator of the six-party talks, China has all along made arduous efforts to resume the talks, (but) the key parties are the D.P.R.K. and the United States,” he said. Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan arrived in Pyongyang today to discuss “bilateral and military issues” with his North Korean counterpart, according to Liu (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 4).
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