Mixed Expectations for Six-Party Talks

A senior official of the U.S State Department was quoted at a press conference on Thursday ahead of the second round of Six-Party Talks as saying, “Our goal is to settle North’s nuclear issue through diplomatic measures” and that “the expectations for the talks are neither high nor low.”

He also pointed out that “our main focus is on the nuclear issues, but we may also broach other problems if they are found along the process of solving this issue.” He hinted that missiles, human rights and other issues could become possible topics.

“The U.S. analysis of the North’s uranium enrichment program is based on evidence beyond than that of the recent confession of a Pakistani scientist, and North can’t possibly continue denying the existence of a uranium enrichment program,” he said. “If the talks are less than completely successful, we will continue to try to work along those lines. There`s a great deal of patience and resolve on our side.”

maypole@donga.com