Global Security Newswire

The United States yesterday indicated that China, North Korea's most powerful ally, agreed with U.S. officials that Pyongyang should return to six-party denuclearization talks, the Yonhap News Agency reported (see GSN, July 28).

Beijing's reluctance to support past attempts to pressure North Korea has been a major obstacle to enforcing previous U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang's nuclear program. However, China stands behind the latest U.N. resolution, according to U.S. officials.

"The U.S. and China reiterated their agreement on the need for implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 and the need for North Korea to return to the six-party talks," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said as the two nations wrapped up a two-day strategic and economic conference. Kelly said the sides discussed the "common interest" of North Korean disarmament at several levels during the talks.

North Korea hinted this week that it might be open to bilateral talks with the United States. Washington rejected the idea, saying it would only talk directly to Pyongyang within the framework of the six-party talks, which also include China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. North Korea walked away from the talks in April and has since called them "dead" (Hwang Doo-Hyong, Yonhap News Agency, July 28).

A top Chinese official yesterday said North Korea might consider giving up its nuclear weapons in exchange for incentives if the deal includes security assurances for Pyongyang, Agence France-Presse reported.

"China believes that if the package solution that the United States is thinking about accommodates reasonable security concerns, it will be attractive to the North Korean side," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya (Agence France-Presse/Straits Times, July 28).

China, which has consistently said negotiations are the only way to resolve the North Korea standoff, yesterday encouraged the United States to talk to Pyongyang, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"We believe that in order to solve the [North Korean] nuclear issue, the United States has a very important role to play," Guangya said. "We welcome the willingness of the United States to have direct talks with [Pyongyang]."

The Chinese diplomat affirmed that China, like the United States, is "firmly opposed" to North Korea's nuclear arms program, and said the two sides have used this week's conference as an opportunity for "thorough discussions on ways to realize a turnaround in the situation."

Guangya also reiterated Beijing's position that while U.N. nations should not fall short in enforcing sanctions against the North, it should not exceed its mandate, either.

"In implementing Security Council resolutions, we have to be both serious and very responsible," he said. "We need adequate evidence in carrying out sanctions ... I believe China and the United States will further communicate and cooperate with each other with regards to the implementation of Security Council resolutions. At the same time, we should prevent situations in some parts of the area from spinning out of control because of inaccurate information" (Xinhua News Agency I/ChinaView.cn, July 29).

Meanwhile, South Korea's top nuclear negotiator, Wi Sung-lac, is expected to meet with U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth, several Wi aides told Yonhap (Xinhua News Agency/ChinaView.cn, July 29).

Knowing how best to deal with North Korea's Stalinist regime might become more complicated if leader Kim Jong Il leaves his post, Time reported yesterday.

The dictator has appeared sickly since reportedly having a stroke last summer, and South Korean media recently reported that he might be ill with pancreatic cancer -- a particularly deadly type of the disease.

"If he's as sick as some reports indicate, we're looking at very uncertain times," said one U.S. diplomat.

While Kim is believed to have named his youngest son, 26-year-old Kim Jong Un, as his successor, many in the intelligence community believe Pyongyang's elder statesmen might not abide the younger Kim's authority and could jockey for the reins of the nuclear-armed nation.

"Everyone ... is back trying to figure out the most basic things about (the regime)," said another diplomatic source. Although direct talks "might help in that exercise," "no one knows" when that might happen, he said. "For now, we're probably going to have to have talks with them about the format of the talks" (Bill Powell, Time, July 28).

Elsewhere, a Beijing official yesterday said Chinese authorities honored the U.N. sanctions earlier this week by confiscating weapons-usable material headed for North Korea inside fruit boxes, the Associated Press reported.

Officials made the bust during a vehicle check at the Chinese-North Korean border. They found 154 pounds of vanadium, a metal often used to as a steel-strengthening agent that could be used to build weapons. The granular metal seized by the border agents is worth about $29,000 (Gillian Wong, Associated Press/Google News, July 28).