N Korea shows
no signs of softening in 6-way talks
BEIJING—Negotiators saw no compromise in bruising six-party nuclear
disarmament talks with North Korea on Tuesday and urged Pyongyang to
come to the table with a realistic offer — and a festive spirit. Tuesday
was the second day of negotiations in the six-party talks, which resumed
in the Chinese capital after a hiatus of more than a year.
On the opening day, North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan pressed sweeping
demands in return for scrapping nuclear weapons, starting with lifting
U.N. sanctions and U.S. financial curbs and the provision of a new
nuclear reactor. “Basically there has been no major change in what they
said yesterday,” a Japanese diplomat told reporters after the second
day’s talks, adding that North Korea showed no sign of softening. “We
still can’t see where their true intention is.”
The top U.S. envoy to the talks, speaking before the second day’s
session, was also gloomy. “I think I would be hard-pressed to say any
progress was made,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill told
reporters. “Certainly there was nothing I heard in the plenary (meeting)
to fill me up with a sense of holiday spirit,” Hill said, speaking
beside a towering Christmas tree in his hotel lobby.
The six-party meeting of envoys from the two Koreas, the United States,
China, Japan and Russia are being held in the shadow of Pyongyang’s
first nuclear test, on October 9. Washington imposed the financial curbs
last year after determining that Pyongyang was involved in
money-laundering and counterfeiting U.S. dollars. The U.N. Security
Council authorized sanctions in October after condemning the nuclear
test.
Even China, generally eager to stress progress in the talks it has
hosted since 2003, said the meeting had exposed rifts. “Some of the
differences between the sides are quite clear and some disputes are
quite sharp,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference
on Tuesday. Hill suggested North Korea had not made a serious pitch and
had much to lose if the talks failed. “They should come to it in a mood
of trying to reach a deal,” he said of the impoverished state. “They
need a lot of things. They need food, electricity. They don’t need
nuclear weapons.”
Hill and other envoys suggested that North Korea may trim its demands in
coming days. South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo said Pyongyang’s ambitious
list of demands was a predictable bid to bolster its bargaining
position, not a final offer.
China said it favored steadily implementing a September 2005 agreement
in which North Korea agreed in principle to give up its nuclear weapons
in return for aid and security guarantees. “Putting it into practice in
stages is the reasonable and realistic choice,” China’s chief negotiator
Wu Dawei said in a statement. But there was no agreement on a “work
plan” China has proposed to reinvigorate diplomacy, the Japanese
diplomat said.—Agencies |
