Latest North Korea Talks Conclude in Moscow

The latest round of working-level talks on North Korea’s nuclear program ended today in Moscow, Reuters reported (see GSN, Aug. 20).

The two-day meeting on security in Northeast Asia is among several working groups set to address various issues related to full six-party negotiations aimed at shuttering Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

“We had some very useful discussions amongst the six parties.  These were working discussions, no conclusions, but we will be making some recommendations to the heads of delegations for further consideration,” said U.S. delegation chief Blair Hall.

“These discussions were full, they were open and given in a very cooperative spirit.  The mood was very positive,” he said.

Both Hall and Russian delegation head Vladimir Rakhmanin declined to disclose details of the discussions.

“(At the last meeting) in Beijing we met around one table probably for about an hour and a half while this time we were around this table for two days,” Rakhmanin said.  “If you look at this from the outside you might say:  ‘So what?  But if you understand the complexity of this problem it is a very big plus sign” (Reuters/New York Times, Aug. 21).

A successful outcome to talks planned for next week on U.S.-North Korean diplomatic relations could lead Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit Pyongyang, a South Korean official said yesterday.

“Considering the example of Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill’s Pyongyang visit, it is also possible to consider a similar visit by Secretary Rice,” said Lee Su-hoon, chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative.

“Should Rice visit the North, the two sides will be able to discuss a prompt solution to the nuclear problem, a completion of the nuclear disablement by the year end and the steps toward normalizing U.S.-N.K. relations,” he said (Lee Joo-hee, The Korea Herald, Aug. 21).

North Korea is looking to be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism as one reward for denuclearization.  However, such a move could anger Japan and U.S. conservatives, the Associated Press reported.

“There’s a point at which you look too eager” to resolve the nuclear standoff, said John Bolton, who has become a vocal critic of U.S. policy on Iran and North Korea since exiting his post as ambassador to the United Nations.

“It would be impolitic at best, and really craven at worse, to proceed to take North Korea off the list of state sponsors of terrorism until the Japanese were completely satisfied that their concerns about their citizens were being met,” Bolton added.

Tokyo wants North Korea to resolve the issue of abductions of Japanese citizens before it is removed from the U.S. list, said Selig Harrison, director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy (Foster Klug, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 21).

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