Asia-Pacific News

North Korea nuclear talks end without agreement (2nd Roundup)

Dec 22, 2006, 16:37 GMT

Beijing - Week-long six-nation talks over North Korea's nuclear programme ended Friday without a breakthrough, and delegates adjourned without setting a date for when they would resume. North Korea said that it would stay away from future nuclear disarmament talks unless the US dropped its financial curbs on the country. 'The prospects of future talks will depend on whether the US is willing to shift its hostile policy towards us,' Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea's chief delegate, told reporters after the Beijing talks ended. Members of the South Korean delegation told the Yonhap News agency after the talks that the gulf separating the United States and North Korea was so wide that the participants could not agree on when to resume the discussions. However, despite the lack of progress, South Korea's chief envoy, Chun Yung-woo, said the week's discussions would help bridge understanding in future talks. The delegations - the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia - did not issue any kind of joint declaration Friday. The chairman of the talks, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, the lead Chinese negotiator, said the six nations agreed 'to reconvene at the earliest opportunity.' US envoy Christopher Hill said that it was 'clear that the North Korean team did not have the instructions to go forward.' 'It is my strong hope that when we go back to the negotiations they are prepared to negotiate,' he added. Little progress has been shown in the more than three years of the nuclear talks, and as a result, Japan's top envoy called into question whether the six-party format should continue. 'There will be opinions questioning the credibility of the six- party talks,' Kenichiro Sasae said. The same issue was on the American envoy's mind. 'The question is what happens to the process if we don't achieve some success,' said Christopher Hill, the lead US negotiator. 'We are interested in this process in so far as they can lead to results. We are not interested in the six-party talks in order to talk.' Expectations were low when the talks opened Monday after being stalled for 13 months, during which North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, but Hill raised hopes Thursday morning when he indicated participants had begun drafting a joint statement. By Thursday evening, after a day of negotiating, however, he said he saw little to be optimistic about. The six countries have met now seven times in Beijing, during which time, North Korea has only agreed to dismantle its nuclear programmes, in return for security guarantees and aid, but it has taken no steps to carry out that September 2005 pledge. Wu said in his statement that in this week's talks, the six countries 'reaffirmed their common goal and will to achieve the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula' and 'reiterated that they would earnestly carry out their commitments' under the September 2005 agreement. Wu's statement said 'useful' talks were held on implementing the agreement and identifying what the first steps toward carrying it out might be. Hill said earlier that the North Korean side needed 'to show some seriousness.' He said the delegation from Pyongyang had been ordered not to discuss movement on its nuclear-weapons programme until US financial sanctions against Pyongyang were lifted. Washington considers the two issues separate but agreed to the formation of a separate working group on the sanctions issue, which met Tuesday and Wednesday on the sidelines of the Beijing talks. North Korean negotiator Kim Gye Kwan accused the US of taking no steps to lift financial sanctions, while calling for the end of North Korea's nuclear programme. 'We are participating in the talks amid continued US sanctions,' Kim said. 'But the US has called for the halt of the operation of our nuclear facilities and inspections without taking actions on the lifting of the sanctions.' 'So we have urged the US to lit the sanctions before starting discussion on the implementation of the September 19 Joint Statement,' Kim said. South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun also indirectly criticized the United States, mentioning that the US Treasury Department in September last year had the North Korean accounts at Banco Delta Asia in Macao frozen only a few days before the signing of the Joint Statement at the talks in Beijing. Even the US State Department was apparently left in the dark about the situation, Roh said at speech broadcast Friday. The subject is 'difficult to interpret,' he said. 'If one wants to look at it in a bad light, one may say it was all coordinated.' In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged negotiators at the six-party talks not to be diverted by peripheral issues like financial sanctions against Pyongyang. 'Diplomacy sometimes takes time, but we should not be diverted somehow by an issue that is clearly in another lane and is clearly being dealt with in a way that the North Koreans themselves asked that it be dealt with,' she said. 'We cannot be diverted from what we need to do in the six-party talks, which is to have the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,' Rice added. Asked Friday morning whether another round of talks would be held, Hill said, 'We will see the progress, and see whether it is valuable. 'Our purpose is the denuclearization,' he said. 'We'll have to evaluate this round in terms of whether we move towards the goal.' The official Chinese news agency Xinhua Friday quoted Chun Yung Woo, South Korea's top negotiator, as saying any 'meaningful' progress in talks would depend on the negotiating stand taken by the North Koreans. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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WilliamDec 22nd, 2006 - 17:26:08

Sooner or later, either N. Korea or the Americans are going to have to make some sacrifices. Neither country seems to be willing to make ends meet. The Americans will not lift the embargo they've placed on the N. Koreans, and the N. Koreans will not cease their nuclearization goals. Instead of trying to make peace between new nations on the brink of war, perhaps some time needs to pass in order to regain some of the trust these two powers once shared.

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Gurmit SinghDec 22nd, 2006 - 18:03:14

Take my word: N Korea will never give up its good detterent (and it shouldn't)
History is full of examples where an intruder or attacker first asked to nagotiate and once the guard was down they were attacked. Never believe what USA says. Be on alert all the time.

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Alternatives for N KoreaDec 22nd, 2006 - 18:30:15

Deterrents that should never be used are a waste of money. N Korea could pursue the objective of 'Cloning Jesus' as indicated in the new book. A success in this area could reap rewards in many directions. Following the lead of any tyranny is bound to lead to one of their own and be an enormous burden to the citizenry. Maybe it should also attempt to be the 1st nation to make the Internet free to everyone.

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JoshuaDec 22nd, 2006 - 18:31:18

The US is definitely not to be trusted. It has at least 10000 nuclear warheads that it wants to keep. It's a case of, 'Do as we say, not as we do.'

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Gurmit the FrogDec 22nd, 2006 - 18:44:06

It is not much of a detterent when they can't even make a test bomb explode correctly. Perhaps N.K. should focus more on feeding their people before they can take on the more difficult tasks like building a bomb. Seems its hard to fight a war with a malnourished populace, no economy, and bombs that fizzle.

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Boys and girlsDec 22nd, 2006 - 19:37:04

Judging by the veracity of the arguments offered in all the above replies, none of the authors is over the age of 11.

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gary nealeDec 22nd, 2006 - 19:48:44

If North Korea carrys on it will find itself in the middle of a war it cannot win.Bring it on!

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Regardless the outcome.Dec 22nd, 2006 - 19:51:30

Regardless the outcome, this will be for the better.
If there is nuclear war, the overcrowding of humans on earth will be 'fixed'.
If there is no nuclear war, no one dies.

Both are good ends.

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DougDec 22nd, 2006 - 20:27:36

Until Bush loses power, North Korea best remain armed. Bush has no intention of making peace with his bone-headed self-proclaimed 'axis of evil' in his woebegone 'war of terror'.

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Jason LymeDec 23rd, 2006 - 00:06:34

Which is the only nation to ever actually use nuclear weapons on people, and civilians at that? The hypocrisy of the Americans, with their vast quantities of stockpiled atomic bombs, is astounding.

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