Hopes Rise as North Koreans Attend Tokyo Talks
04/07/2006
International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
TOKYO -- North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator arrived Friday in Japan to attend a security conference with officials from the five nations that are also involved in talks on halting the North's nuclear weapons program.
The confluence of top officials from the six nations embroiled in the nuclear standoff has raised the possibility of restarting talks that have been stalled since November by a dispute over U.S. restrictions imposed on North Korean companies for alleged illegal financial activities.
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, who flew to Tokyo via Beijing with other North Korean officials, told reporters in Tokyo he "would not reject" a request for bilateral talks with the United States on the sidelines of the conference, according to the Kyodo news agency.
But he also warned he would have to "test the winds in Tokyo" before making predictions about the outcome of the conference.
"I'm here for the security meeting," Kim said. "It has nothing to do with the six-party talks."
The U.S. Embassy said the U.S. representative, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, had no plans for one- on-one meetings with the North Korean delegation. But Japan planned to urge Kim and Hill to meet, according to news reports.
Japan, meanwhile, is hoping to hold talks with North Korean officials.
"If there is an opportunity, it is possible that we may meet to discuss issues between Japan and North Korea," the chief cabinet secretary, Shinzo Abe, said Friday.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he hoped the conference "would make progress."
The U.S. Embassy announced Tuesday that officials from the six countries - the United States, China, Japan, Russia and two Koreas - would meet at the privately sponsored security conference in Tokyo on Monday and Tuesday. Preliminary meetings for the forum, sponsored by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, begin Sunday.
2 Koreas agree to talks
North and South Korea have agreed to resume bilateral talks later this month as diplomatic efforts to revive stalled six-party negotiations on the North's nuclear program gain momentum, Agence France-Presse reported from Seoul.
Almost a month after pulling out of the negotiations over U.S.-South Korean military drills, North Korea proposed resuming inter-Korean high- level talks in Pyongyang from April 21 to 24, the South Korean Unification Ministry said Friday.
