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North Korea and U.S. Fine Tuning Nuclear Solution at Six-Way Talks

North Korea and U.S. Fine Tuning Nuclear Solution at Six-Way Talks

Posted July. 29, 2005 03:04,   

한국어

On July 28, the third day of the six-party talks, delegates of North Korea and the U.S. held a third round of bilateral talks in Beijing to fine tune a solution to North Korea’s nuclear issue based on the arguments made by the chief delegates of both countries in their keynote speeches on the previous day.

During the bilateral talks that lasted almost three hours in the morning, the two countries reportedly discussed which agreements they could make according to the principles of “talk vs. talk” and “action vs. action,” and what to put in the written agreement.

The U.S. is said to have focused on figuring out the background and the intention of the argument made in the keynote speech by the North Korean chief delegate about the denuclearization of the two Koreas and the abolition of the nuclear umbrella given by the U.S. to South Korea. North Korea tried to find out why the U.S. raised missile and human rights issues pertaining to it that are not related to the nuclear issue.

Even though the two sides failed to make clear agreements, they reportedly expressed satisfaction about the fact that they held talks in a practical and constructive atmosphere without exchanging slander.

Both sides plan to have a fourth round of bilateral talks on July 29 in order to iron out differences. The closing date of the six-way talks will be decided by the degree in which the North and the U.S. narrow their differences through the bilateral talks.

South Korea and the U.S. had talks right after the U.S. and the North held bilateral talks to analyze the stance of North Korea and discussed countermeasures.

The participating nations in the talks, the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, China, and Russia, will have a second chief delegates meeting on July 29 to discuss how to manage the talks in the future. Much attention is being paid to whether the meeting will produce a draft agreement for the six-party talks.

Interfax Information Services of Russia reported on July 28 that during the bilateral talks between North Korea and the U.S., both sides discussed the U.S. proposal that international inspection needs to be conducted on the North’s nuclear facilities in September and that the two sides should decide the timetable of North Korea’s nuclear disarmament according to the results of the inspection.



Jong-Koo Yoon jkmas@donga.com