Diplomats Continue Efforts in Tokyo to Revive 6-Party Nuclear Talks
04/11/2006
Japan Economic Newswire
Diplomatic efforts to revive the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs continued Tuesday in Tokyo as chief negotiators to the framework met in separate bilateral settings.
But there were no clear signs of a possible meeting between the top delegates of the United States and North Korea -- the key players in the talks which have been stalled since November -- to discuss prospects of resumption.
"Nothing is scheduled," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill said when asked whether there were plans for him to meet North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan on Tuesday.
"I want to emphasize this is not about talk; this is really about action. And the action is that they need to join the six-party process," Hill said, reiterating the U.S. call for North Korea to return to the talks without any conditions. The six-way talks, which also involve China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, have been deadlocked as North Korea has refused to return to the negotiating table unless the United States lifts the sanctions it imposed on a Macao-based bank suspected of money laundering and counterfeiting for North Korea.
Washington says the sanctions are law enforcement matters unrelated to the talks.
China, which has hosted the multilateral nuclear negotiations since the framework was launched in August 2003, appears keen to mediate between the United States and North Korea toward achieving a breakthrough in the current diplomatic standoff.
Hill met with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo to discuss ways to restart the multilateral talks.
Wu, who postponed his departure from Japan initially scheduled for Tuesday, has hinted he is likely to meet again with Kim following his talks with Hill. Wu and Kim met twice Monday in Tokyo.
While Kim earlier indicated willingness to meet with Hill in Tokyo, he indirectly responded to the top U.S. negotiator's insistence that North Korea must first agree to return to the six-party talks by saying Monday, "We do not want to go that far just to meet."
On Tuesday afternoon, following talks over lunch with Japan's top negotiator Kenichiro Sasae, Hill told reporters, "I don't have any further six-party meetings planned, to my knowledge."
Hill also had a breakfast meeting with South Korea's top negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Chun Yong Woo. On Tuesday, Sasae, who heads the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, met with Kim for the third time in four days, as well as with Wu.
Hill, Kim and Chun were in Tokyo to attend an academic security conference, where they gave presentations in a session on Northeast Asian security on Tuesday morning.
The U.S. diplomat said that in the session, the North Koreans asked him about the "linkage between the defensive measures, the Macao issue and the six-party process" and that he responded, "We don't link the law enforcement issues with the diplomatic issues."
"They asked about our commitment to fulfilling our obligations within the six-party joint statement and I assured them that we're prepared to fulfill all our obligations," Hill told reporters after the session.
Last September, the six countries issued their first statement in which North Korea agreed to abandon all its nuclear programs, rejoin an international nuclear treaty and allow nuclear inspections while the five other countries offered Pyongyang energy aid and security affirmations in return.
In the academic conference which involved scholars and government officials of the same six countries as the nuclear talks, the participants shared the view that the multilateral negotiations should be restarted at an early time, according to Susan Shirk, an organizer of the event.
"What I can say is that officials from all of the six countries, including the DPRK and the United States expressed a strong commitment that the six-party approach was the best way to solve the problem and that everyone was desirous that the talks would resume as soon as possible," Shirk said in a briefing to reporters.
DPRK is the acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said at a press conference that Tokyo is calling on Pyongyang to separate the sanctions issue from the six-party talks, but that North Korea is not showing any positive signs of returning to the negotiating table.
In a separate news conference, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shoichi Nakagawa criticized North Korea for not changing its stance, saying he wonders what Kim came to Japan for.
"That he came empty-handed to coax us is something that is intolerable for the families" of Japanese victims of abduction to North Korea, Nakagawa said.
Tuesday's two-way talks follow a series of bilateral and trilateral meetings among chief negotiators in Tokyo since the weekend in a bid to break the standoff on the North Korean nuclear issue.
