No Movement on Stalled Six-Way Talks

The Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), a vital security and cooperation dialogue for Northeast Asia organized by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), opened in Tokyo yesterday.

This particular meeting is generating extra attention because it is the first time that all the representatives of the six-party talks on the North Korea nuclear issue have gathered in an informal setting.

Representatives from the six parties are trying to reach an agreement to resume the talks, but they have made little progress as of now.

South Korea’s representative, Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and International Organizations Chun Yung-woo had a quick interview with reporters yesterday and said, “I don’t think we can achieve a breakthrough at this meeting. Even though informal meetings like this are very helpful to understand the different point of view of each party, it is not a useful means to produce tangible outcomes. High anticipation will result in deep disappointment.”

Regarding this, it was reported that Chun had a meeting with Kim Kye Gwan, the chief unclear negotiator for North Korea and the nation’s vice foreign minister, one day before this interview, in which Chun talked Kim into returning to the six-party talks. Kim, however, didn’t move an inch from his previous position that North Korea won’t return the talks until the United States lifts financial sanctions against North Korea.

Sasae Kenichiro, the representative of Japan and director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asia-Oceania bureau, who had a two-hour talk with Kim last Saturday, also said, “I have no idea about the resumption of the six-party talks.” U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs already said at the interview with BBC, “We will listen to North Korea if it returns to the six-way talks. Otherwise, we don’t have any plan to talk with the North.”

Meanwhile, since three chief negotiators (DPRK, ROK, and USA) are scheduled to have speeches at the plenary session of NEACD on April 11, the three representatives are expected to have a chance to share their different positions.

Kwang-Am Cheon iam@donga.com