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South Korea, U.S. Agree to Resume North Korea Nuclear Negotiations Without Pyongyang
South Korea and the United States yesterday agreed to call for multilateral talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program even if Pyongyang refuses to join, the Yonhap News Agency reported today (see GSN, July 17). “In order to prevent a situation in which the talks do not reopen for a long period of time and to maintain the momentum of the six-party process, we agreed to pursue a five-party meeting,” the South Korean Embassy in Washington announced after a meeting of the countries’ top nuclear negotiators, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and Seoul’s envoy, Chun Young-woo. The five nations include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. “What we are trying to achieve is six-party talks,” Chun said. “But if six-party talks cannot be held, I think it’s better to hold the five-party talks rather than not having any talks at all.” “Six is better than five, but five is better than none,” Hill said. China, which hosted the previous talks, has indicated recently that it might be open to meetings that do not include North Korea, a South Korean diplomat told Yonhap. Chun said the other five countries could “discuss a range of issues, for example, establishing a number of working-level groups that will meet regularly and make progress” (Yonhap News Agency, July 18). Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the nuclear standoff with Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday, Agence France-Presse reported. Putin urged North Korea to resume disarmament talks in short order, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse, July 17).
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