North Korea nuclear talks struggle with statement

By Teruaki Ueno and Jack Kim

BEIJING (Reuters) – Tortuous six-party talks on North
Korea’s nuclear crisis entered a sixth day on Sunday, with
negotiators struggling to thrash out a joint statement of
principles that has eluded them for nearly three years.

Despite an unprecedented flurry of one-to-one meetings in
recent days, the main protagonists, Washington and Pyongyang,
still appeared far apart on the critical issue of how and when
the North’s nuclear weapons programs should be dismantled.

Diplomats stressed that progress at the talks, with no end
date set, would be slow. They had spent Saturday afternoon
reviewing a draft statement put forward by China, which is
hosting the forum.

Chief negotiators from the two Koreas, China, the United
States, Russia and Japan left it to deputies on Sunday to
haggle over the text with the aim of producing a joint document
that all parties could sign. No one believed the final draft
would contain much in the way of ground-breaking commitments.

“I think in our view, the Chinese text represents a good
basis for further negotiations and further discussion,” U.S.
chief negotiator Christopher Hill said late on Saturday.

But he added: “It’s hard to tell about progress until you
actually have an agreement.” He gave no details of the document
or say when the final text would be produced.

The North Korean delegation, which in the past has abruptly
called news conferences to denounce hostile U.S. policy, has
kept quiet so far during this fourth round, which opened on
Tuesday.

Japan, meanwhile, appeared determined to include the issue
of North Korea’s abduction of its nationals in the document, a
move analysts said could anger Pyongyang and undermine any
agreement.

“We will do our best to have our position and arguments
reflected on the document,” Japanese chief negotiator Akitaka
Saiki told reporters on Sunday.

Having any statement at all agreed by the six parties would
mark a breakthrough for the Beijing talks where past progress
has been measured by whether they could agree even to
reconvene.

CHICKEN-AND-EGG DEBATE

Everything turns on what the negotiators call sequencing,
the chicken-and-egg debate on which steps should come first.

North Korea wants aid, security assurances and diplomatic
recognition and an end to U.S. hostility before starting to
take apart its nuclear programs. The United States wants it the
other way round.

Washington also demands full and verifiable destruction of
Pyongyang’s weapons programs, which intelligence sources say
have produced enough enriched plutonium for up to nine nuclear
bombs, before any aid or guarantees materialize.

After a hiatus of more than a year, this fourth round of
talks since the crisis erupted in October 2002 has been marked
by unprecedented bilateral contact between Washington and
Pyongyang.

The two protagonists have held six meetings in as many days
lasting anywhere from 75 minutes to three hours, and sought to
outline clearly their stances and differences. In the past such
encounters were rare, brief and adhered to pre-written scripts.

A breakthrough on a statement could come on Monday. “It is
not impossible to finalize the joint document on Monday. But it
may take longer,” a diplomatic source close to the talks said.

The atmosphere has been far more cordial than in the early
days of the administration of George W. Bush, when the
president labeled North Korea part of an “axis of evil”
alongside Iran and pre-war Iraq, or even early this year when
his secretary of state called Pyongyang an “outpost of
tyranny.”

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim and Benjamin Kang Lim)