N. Korea Asked to Abide by Statement

Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said on January 24 that South Korea and the United States had already made an aggressive offer to North Korea after a close consultation in order to implement the previously agreed-upon September 19 joint statement, and North Korea is showing a flexible attitude.

Song, at a weekly press briefing at the Foreign Ministry building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, added, “If the six-party talks resume, there should be a concrete agreement in the first stage of the September 19 joint statement implementation.”

Regarding the possibility of North Korea insisting on unfreezing its accounts in Banco Delta Asia at the six-party talks, Song said that all the members of the talks have focused on the needs of consultation on an early stage implementation of the September joint statement.

Meanwhile, with the looming resumption of the six-party talks, contacts between the Republic of Korea, China, U.S., and Japan have been followed up in order to set the date and the agenda of the talks.

Song will visit China on January 25 to meet with Li Zhaoxing, the Chinese foreign minister, Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, Tang Jiaxuan, state minister, and Wang Jiarui, minister of the international department of the CPC, to discuss a resolution to the North’s nuclear crisis.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that Li and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had discussed mutual cooperation about the issue over the phone on January 23.

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