US Ponders over Resuming Talks with North Korea

The United States government notified South Korea, in a bilateral talks held a part of the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group that took place in Washington on Tuesday, that it was open to dialog with North Korea if it was to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

So far, the Bush administration had insisted that the United States would not resume any dialog with North unless it was confirmed that North Korea completely got rid of its nuclear program. The new statement indicates the change of the US policy toward North. This change seems to have been triggered by President George W. Bush`s remark about a "diplomatic showdown."

One diplomatic source in Washington, D.C. said, "The United States has not shown any friendly responses as to North Korea`s nuke threat. If North Korea keeps making positive responses, the Bush administration will not insist on the current indifferent approach."

The South Korean delegation said, "If North Korea takes any positive actions, both of South Korea and the United States will keep our efforts to resolve this matter peacefully. We discussed diverse countermeasures to the actions North might take in the future. We also shared ideas to come up with ways to prevent the situation from getting worse."

South Korea delegates held another bilateral talks with Japanese officials. Then, at around 9:15 a.m. on January 7th, they took part in the full session of the TCOG. South Korea, the Unites and Japan are expected to issue a joint press release on Wednesday afternoon.

Young-Sik Kim spear@donga.com