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Six-Nation N. Korea Nuclear Talks Resume

Posted on: Sunday, 18 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

BEIJING - North Korean disarmament talks resumed Sunday as chief envoys from the six nations met to resolve a dispute over a Chinese proposal to allow Pyongyang keep its civilian atomic power program after it disarms.

The heads of all six delegations met briefly early Sunday morning hoping to find a compromise, Chinese officials said. Results of that meeting were not immediately available.

"We'll see where we are at the end of the day," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said earlier as he left his hotel. Hill said would stay in Beijing another day.

Washington insists North Korea cannot be trusted with any type of nuclear program, given its history of pursuing atomic bombs.

The talks include China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.

The Chinese proposal affirms North Korea's right to peaceful nuclear activities after it ends its weapons program.

The Pyongyang regime had not directly commented on the proposal, but after it was put forward Friday, a spokesman for the North denounced efforts to get it to give up its nuclear program without concessions by the United States.

The spokesman, Hyun Hak Bong, declared such demands "brigandish."

"Clearly, they have some problems with the draft but we have some problems as well," Hill said of North Korea's stance.

A South Korean official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said an unspecified number of countries at the talks had not yet received official responses from their home governments.

Hill said he was making frequent calls to Washington.

He praised the Chinese for trying to bridge differences among the six countries, but said Washington could not accept a vague statement of principles that would leave tough issues for later.

"We cannot create ambiguities at this stage that would cause confusion in the future," he said. "We're not going to get there by papering over these differences and kicking the can down the road."

Japan's envoy said earlier Saturday that none of the participants were completely happy with China's proposal, casting doubt on whether negotiators would be able to sign off on China's latest proposal by Sunday.

"We are not necessarily satisfied," said Kenichiro Sasae, director of the Asia and Oceania Bureau at Japan's Foreign Ministry.

But he said negotiators were "working up to the last minute."

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo urged the envoys to end the "cold war state" on the Korean peninsula.

Dai described the draft as a "win-win" proposal and the "most realistic scenario for the relevant parties to reach an accord," the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

As Beijing lobbied for the plan's acceptance, China's foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, spoke by telephone with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the nuclear talks and other issues, Xinhua reported.

The North has been offered economic aid, security guarantees from Washington and free electricity from South Korea in exchange for dismantling its weapons program.

North Korea has demanded it be given a nuclear reactor for generating electricity before disarming. Pyongyang's spokesman at the talks, Hyun, said Friday that the North would be willing to see the nuclear reactor co-managed and that it would be open to international inspections.

But he also reiterated the North's insistence that it needs nuclear weapons for its own defense - against what it says is a threat from the United States.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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