Issues Still Divide U.S., North Korea

On November 28 in Beijing, China, the North Korean, U.S. and Chinese chief delegates to the six-party talks began negotiations to reopen roundtable discussions. But it is expected that the North Korea-U.S. tension surrounding the preconditions to the talks will continue, making it harder to schedule for the talk.

“We’ll induce NK to make promises,” says the U.S.-

The U.S. is known to have demanded North Korea meet two core requirements as preconditions for reopening the six-party talks, which are suspending the operation of nuclear facilities and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“Newspapers have been writing recently that there are three or five requirements the U.S., Japan, and South Korea decided to demand North Korea to meet, but the two core demands by the U.S. are that North Korea suspend the operation of its nuclear facilities and accept inspections by IAEA,” said a source in Washington.

“Since North Korea said it will accept the requirements over the course of a preliminary consultation, suggesting them again after the reopening of the roundtable will be the biggest obstacle to resuming the talks,” added the source.

Another source said, “The U.S. has the solid intention to avert repeating previous mistakes by resuming talks only if North Korea suspends its nuclear program vs. North Korea’s demand that “you provide us with something.”

“It is quite unlikely that the U.S. has forgotten the clear fact that North Korea carried out nuclear testing and brought itself to the negotiations at the ground level,” said the source. “The U.S. hopes to reopen the talks in mid-December, but this hope can be put off continuously if the preliminary requirements are not met”

Chief delegates say, “Prove you mean it”-

During an interview with Global People, a Chinese magazine, Christopher Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs said, “Denuclearizing the Korean peninsula will no doubt be the first item on the agenda if the six-party talks resume.”

“We hope to see with our own eyes that North Korea sincerely means to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula,” said Hill at an interview before he arrived in Beijing on November 27. “If North Korea promises to denuclearize, we are willing to take specific measures that respond to the promises.”

To the question what he would do if North Korea persists in its policy to take part as a nuclear nation, Assistant Secretary Hill strongly answered, “North Korea is not a nuclear nation, and we cannot admit North Korea as one. China is with us on this position.”

“At the meeting on October 31, we made clear that we will not accept North Korea as a nuclear nation. North Korea, however, hopes to be acknowledged as a nuclear nation first and begin the negotiation on nuclear arms control. North Korea made a new, very difficult situation by enforcing the nuclear testing, and it should also lay groundwork for another situation with sincerity.”

North: “We’ll present ourselves at the talks proudly”-

Kim Gye Gwan, the vice foreign minister of North Korea, met with journalists in Beijing after arriving in Beijing on November 28 and said, “We are able to bring ourselves to the roundtable proudly since we have taken every defensive measure that can respond to sanctions and pressure through nuclear testing.”

“There are a lot of imminent argument points between North Korea and the U.S. We have come our way to the kind invitation from Assistant Secretary Hill to show us his own dance steps.” At that time, Assistant Secretary Christopher Hill had said, “We were not the one to start this dance.” This point casts clouds over the prospect of future talks.

Meanwhile, Vice Minister Kim, Assistant Secretary Hill and the Chinese vice minister for Foreign Affairs Wu Dawei proceeded with negotiations, paralleling the three-party talks with bilateral meetings.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Jiang Yu said, “The most urgent task is to resume the six-party talks as soon as possible through communication.”

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