U.S., South Korea Discuss North Korea Nuclear Deal

Senior U.S. and South Korean officials met today in Seoul for talks on the faltering plan to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear programs, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 29).

One day before he is scheduled to travel to Pyongyang, State Department senior Korea expert Sung Kim met with deputy chief nuclear negotiator Lim Sung-nam to discuss strategies for breaking the deadlock.

“The two had useful talks ahead of (Kim’s) North Korea visit,” a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said.

The two officials made no public statements.

North Korea pledged last year to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for energy, diplomatic and security concessions from the other countries involved in the six-party talks.  However, progress in the second stage of denuclearization has stalled while the nations wait for a full declaration of Pyongyang’s nuclear programs.  Washington, in particular, has said a list provided last year was not sufficiently comprehensive.

It remains to be seen if Kim will visit the Yongbyon nuclear complex, where the regime has slowed removal of nuclear fuel rods from its sole operating reactor.  State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he “wouldn’t rule out the possibility if (Kim) thinks it’s in his interest” (Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 29).

U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Timothy Keating held out hope Monday for an end to tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

Intelligence and the ongoing six-party process “give us cause to be … hopeful, very cautiously hopeful, for a change in the security situation on the Korean Peninsula,” he said during a luncheon speech in Washington.

Keating said, though, that “much has to happen” first.  Pyongyang must carry though on its nuclear declaration and disablement pledges and open its border, he said (Yonhap News Agency, Jan. 29).

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