Six Nations Adopt Theme of Nuclear-Free Peninsula

Participating nations in six-party talks among the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan, and Russia finished a four-day schedule adopting the chairman’s statement with a nuclear-free Korean peninsula as a theme in Beijing, China on February 28.

In the chairman’s statement, those countries agreed to hold a third round of six-way talks in Beijing between April and June to organize a working group in preparation for a whole meeting, to announce a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, a will to solve the nuclear issue peacefully and to take a tuned measure among them on this issue.

In connection with this, the South Korean government is going to try to negotiate on the issue of these talks, an abolition of the highly enriched uranium (HEU) development program of North Korea in a working-level meeting in Beijing in the middle of this month if possible.

Before that, although the six countries agreed on a draft of a joint statement for the media on the night of February 27, they released the chairman’s statement, which is a lower rank than the joint statement, after arguing, as the North later asked to insert words that “there was a controversy.”

North Korean vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said in a press interview on 28 that “while we received money from Pakistan by selling missiles to earn foreign currency, we never dealt HEU with it.” This is the first official confirmation of the North’s sale of missiles to Pakistan.

The second round of six-way talks closed on the 28th of last month has a significance in a sense that the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan, and Russia decided to keep the frame of dialogue focused on solving the North Korean nuclear crisis peacefully.

However, considering the deep-rooted distrust between the U.S. and North Korea, and their different viewpoints, a breakthrough does not seem easy to be found in a short period.

Therefore, it is more likely that the six-party talks are going on as long-term talks in which U.S.-North Korean conflicts are controlled and real solving is postponed while the nuclear crisis is not worsening and is being kept on at least this level.

-The Outcomes of the Talks

The chairman’s statement adopted this time is an agreed document which is drawn up for the first time on the nuclear issue among the countries concern whose interest is at stake since the crisis is revealed as North Korea admitted its nuclear development in October, 2002. So it is significant that participating countries announced their will to a ‘nuclear-free Korean peninsular’ and a ‘peaceful solution of the North Korean nuclear issue’ though the action is only declaratory.

The most distinguished outcome is that they agreed on holding a working group in which working-level officials will discuss this nuclear issue. The working group seems to take a role of tuning different positions among nations and making the whole talks regularly based on a principle that ‘While looking for the same opinion, respect others’ different positions’ as China emphasized.

-The Limitations and Prospects of the Talks

The tense issue between North Korea and the U.S. on HEU did not make progress at all

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly pushed North Korea to admit a nuclear program using HEU and discard it, but Kim Kye-gwan of North Korea turned down that proposal by saying, “All this story is manipulated by U.S.”

On this, Kelly explained, “We could present evidence if North Korea wants, but Mr. Kim did not ask that.”

In addition, a three-step solution Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck, presented in a press interview with foreign and national correspondents in Seoul before the talks, did not show any progress as well, since the U.S. did not accept this plan.

Lee explained that the U.S. and Japan expressed their support to the South Korean proposal, but in fact, the U.S. does not seem to agree on this. According the proposal, they should provide diesel oil to the North, if it freezes nuclear related activities on the assumption of abandoning its nuclear.

Some would see the U.S. presidential election in November of this year as a variable of the North Korean nuclear issue. According to their analysis, a real solving of the matter is difficult sooner or later as U.S. president George W. Bush will not bring the matter on the surface unless a diplomatic victory is definitely expected, while North Korea seems to be delaying its nuclear abandonment, expecting a victory by the Democratic party, that seems more friendly to the country in the election.

Seung-Ryun Kim Jung-Ahn Kim srkim@donga.com credo@donga.com