North’s Kim Gye-gwan Likely Representative at Upcoming Six-Party Talks

North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan will likely attend the second round of six-way talks on the North’s nuclear issue, due on February 25, as the country’s representative, said Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.

Vice Minister Kim participated in the negotiations with the U.S. on the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework and in other meetings regarding nuclear and missile issues. He is also a seasoned diplomat, well versed in the nuclear development program.

“His participation means that North Korea might be ready to negotiate practical matters in the upcoming talks,” said a Japanese government official.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Mainichi newspaper quoted a U.S. government official as saying that “North Korea notified the U.S. that it would maintain its minimum nuclear deterrence until North-US relations normalize and that it would completely give up nuclear programs based on the simultaneous action principle.” The North explained that its “nuclear freeze” meant giving up its nuclear program when North Korea-US relations normalized, maintaining a minimum nuclear deterrence, and stopping nuclear deterrence build-up until the normalization, according to the newspaper. But it is unknown how the North notified the U.S. of this. The North said its nuclear deterrence referred to existing stocks derived prior to 1992, and newly derived plutonium up until 2003, according to the newspaper.

parkwj@donga.com