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China envoy: North Korea nuclear talks likely as planned

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 August 2005, 02:12 CDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program are likely to resume next week as planned, China's top envoy to the discussions said on Wednesday.

In Seoul, a senior South Korean official said he was optimistic about the prospects for a deal where North will abandon its nuclear weapons programs because Pyongyang has been presented with Washington's best-ever offer.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, visiting Japan for talks with Japanese officials, told reporters the starting date would be decided after consultations with the other parties.

"As planned," Wu said when asked about the timing of the upcoming talks, following a meeting with Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's chief negotiator to the forum which includes the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.

Following a gap of more than a year, the six countries met in Beijing for nearly two weeks before they broke earlier this month with a decision to reconvene during the week of August 29.

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity in the interim, including contacts between U.S. and North Korean officials.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon discussed the six-party talks during a meeting on Tuesday evening in Washington.

Sasae is set to fly to Washington on Thursday for a meeting with Rice and his U.S. counterpart in the nuclear discussions.

Washington has offered security guarantees and economic aid -- backed by a plan from South Korea to supply the North with electricity equal to its current output -- in exchange for North Korea dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.

BEST U.S. OFFER

"There has never been a more positive signal in 50 years than what the United States has offered the North," Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik told a forum in Seoul.

"It has everything the North wants. The North must look at the pros and cons of passing on all of that and sticking to its nuclear programs," Lee said.

"The United States has promised normalization of relations in return for North Korea giving up all its nuclear programs. I think there will be some good result soon," he said.

In a sign of softening U.S. position ahead of the planned resumption of the talks, the top U.S. negotiator said the issue of a civilian nuclear plan was a "theoretical, downstream" issue that would not break a deal.

"If you ask me, it's not exactly a showstopper issue -- the real issue is getting rid of all their nuclear programs," Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters in Washington.

U.S. officials have been skeptical about allowing North Korea to pursue a civilian nuclear program out of concern such a program actually would be used for military purposes.

North Korea on Wednesday criticized joint military drills by U.S. and South Korean forces, where the two are testing their computer and command systems, as coercion.

The exercises are aimed to "pressurize the DPRK by force of arms to meet the unreasonable demands (the United States) raised at the six-party talks," the North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by KCNA news agency.

DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Source: REUTERS

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