|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Bilateral Meetings Anticipated During North Korea Nuclear Talks Recess, South Korea Says
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon expects to meet separately with Chinese and U.S. officials in the coming days to further discuss the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Aug. 8). Chinese and North Korean officials are also likely to meet before the next round of negotiations, scheduled to begin the week of Aug. 29, Ban said. “We’ll put our diplomatic efforts into making the best use of the three-week recess period to make significant progress when negotiations resume,” he said. “This meeting was very meaningful and productive as North Korea and the United States managed to significantly narrow their differences, as did North and South Korea,” Ban said, referring to the 13-day negotiating session that went into recess on Sunday. He added that, because of its withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and expulsion of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, North Korea would have a difficult time persuading other participants in the six-nation talks that it should be allowed to maintain a nuclear energy program — the central dispute during last week’s round of talks. “North Korea needs to build trust,” Ban said (Miyoung/Herskovitz, Reuters, Aug. 9). The U.S. State Department announced yesterday that “good progress was made” during the Beijing talks, Agence France-Presse reported. Negotiations were characterized by “sustained and substantive engagement on issues,” said State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. He said the parties were “moving the ball forward” by going through four drafts of a statement of principles. “(We) couldn’t get it over the goal line, but came darn close, and have, I think, maybe a good basis to think we can get there in a couple more weeks,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Aug. 8).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
