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Next Round of North Korean Talks Probably Delayed Until January
Six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis — once expected to convene next week — will probably be delayed for another month, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Dec. 11). “The trend is moving toward opening talks in mid-January,” a senior South Korean official said. Pyongyang is prepared to join talks immediately if their demands are met, according to an EU delegation that arrived in Seoul today after a three-day visit to North Korea. “They would answer that they’re willing to go right away, but of course the question would be on which terms,” according to Percy Westerlund, a senior European Commission official (Paul Eckert, Reuters, Dec. 12). The United States, however, reaffirmed its intention yesterday to hold the next round without meeting North Korean demands first. “We’re willing to go to talks this month without any preconditions. We’ve made clear, we think, [that] other parties, including North Korea, should be ready to do that as well, without preconditions,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday (U.S. State Department release, Dec. 11). The EU officials said North Korea would probably stick to its demands. “For national security reasons, they cannot possibly dismantle their program until they have all the assurances they need for their security. They see the nuclear weapons option as indispensable for their national security,” Westerlund said. “I didn’t detect any particular wavering,” he added (Hans Greimel, Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 12).
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