Kim Jong-il Unsatisfied with Six-party Talks

The Tokyo Shinbun reported on September 17 that North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il expressed discontent over the six-party talks that took place in Beijing at the end of last month, saying that, “all the participating countries refused to listen to what other countries were saying.”

The Tokyo Sinbun reported the news through the documentary interview with Russia`s President Plenipotentiary in the Far Eastern Federal District Konstantin Pulikovsky, who visited Pyongyang on September 9 to celebrate the 55th Anniversary of its founding. Kim Jong-il has reportedly said that, “adding more countries to the meetings will make the issue more complicated,” and that he had expected “the participating countries to talk about their interests only (at the six-party talks in Beijing).” The newspaper reported that Pulikovsky expects the next six-party meeting, which is presumed to be held in November in Beijing, to succeed, saying that, “the fact that 6 participating countries of the talk had agreed on the principle that is important in solving the issue is a positive sign.”

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com