|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
North Korea Talks Recess Until Late August
Six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions were suspended yesterday without an agreement but with all sides pledging to resume negotiations during the week of Aug. 29, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Aug. 5). “We decided to have a brief recess so delegations can go back to report to their respective governments, further study each other’s positions and resolve differences which still exist,” said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing’s top envoy at the negotiations (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 7). During the three-week recess, all sides “are supposed to maintain contact and consultations,” Wu said. He added that he was not optimistic that negotiators would reach an agreement upon their return, the Associated Press reported (Joe McDonald, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 7). After 13 days of negotiations, the primary disagreement centered on whether Pyongyang should be allowed to have a nuclear energy program, AFP reported. “They not only want the right to use nuclear energy, but the right to use light-water reactors. That is simply not on our table,” said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, chief U.S. negotiator. “The D.P.R.K. would like to put in the light-water reactors (to a proposed joint document) but no one else wants to do that,” Hill said. All five of the countries negotiating with Pyongyang agreed that it was not an appropriate time for the North to press the issue of nuclear energy, said a Japanese official. “There is no major discrepancy among the five,” the official said. North Korean envoy Kim Kye Gwan, however, insisted that all countries have the right to develop a nuclear energy program. “During this round of talks I had expected the United States to accept our demand (for peaceful nuclear activities) but the United States did not make such a decision,” Kim said. “During the recess I hope the United States will change its policy,” he said. Japanese negotiator Kenichiro Sasae said Pyongyang must rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty before demanding to be allowed a nuclear energy program. “North Korea should first regain trust of the international community by such measures as its return to the NPT,” Sasae said (Agence France-Presse, Aug. 7). A senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations said the North Korean delegation did not appear to have the authority to negotiate any further and that raising the issue of a nuclear energy program may have been a delaying tactic. “I think they … gave us an offer we had to refuse and create the circumstances for this recess,” he said. “One gets the impression people back in Pyongyang have still not dragged themselves over the line to give (their nuclear weapons) up. But I think we’re closer than ever before.” Chinese envoy Wu said he believed that more progress was made at these talks than in the first three rounds of six-nation negotiations (Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 8). Analysts saw the negotiations as having been somewhat successful, but warned that the gap between North Korean and U.S. policy remained large, AFP reported. “There was success, but very limited success, in a process that is very hard,” said Shi Yinhong, a regional analyst at Beijing’s People’s University. “I doubt whether Washington and Pyongyang will be willing to change their fundamental positions,” said Shi. “North Korea is not going to give up its nuclear weapons, barring a sea change or major paradigm shift,” said Paul Harris, an analyst at Lingnan University in Hong Kong (Agence France-Presse II/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 7).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
