N.Korea talks next week, some reports say

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) – Six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear
weapons program may resume on September 2 and are likely to
make more progress than the previous round, China’s top envoy
to the forum was quoted as saying on Thursday.

But another report quoted a North Korean diplomatic source
in Beijing as saying the talks were unlikely to resume next
week.

“The talks could resume from September 2,” visiting Chinese
Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei was quoted by Mizuho Fukushima,
leader of Japan’s Social Democratic Party, as telling her in a
meeting.

Fukushima told Reuters that Wu also said: “I think there
will be more progress than before.”

But an unnamed North Korean source told Interfax news
agency: “In our opinion, there is little chance that the fourth
round of the six-way talks could be resumed next week.”

Wu is to visit Pyongyang soon, Fukushima said without
elaborating. She said Wu had given her no further details about
the talks, including whether the other parties to the talks had
agreed to the September 2 date.

“He said the various countries are making efforts regarding
the talks, and so for that reason more progress is likely than
in previous rounds,” Fukushima said.

Wu spoke to Fukushima on a “courtesy visit” to acknowledge
a long history of good relations between the Communists and the
Japanese socialists, a spokesman for the opposition party said.

The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia
met in Beijing for nearly two weeks before breaking off earlier
this month with a decision to reconvene during the week of
August 29. The talks were the first in more than a year.

A spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry said he
anticipated that the talks would begin next week, likely in the
second half of the week, but that no firm date had been set.

DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITY

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead next
week, including contacts between U.S. and North Korean
officials, in a bid to avoid another breakdown.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon met on Tuesday in Washington, and
Japan’s representative to the forum flies to the United States
on Thursday for a meeting with his U.S. counterpart.

On Wednesday, a senior South Korean official said he was
optimistic about prospects for a deal under which the North
would abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions because Pyongyang
has been presented with Washington’s best-ever offer.

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

“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 that the U.S. position was softening ahead of the
planned resumption of talks, Assistant Secretary of State
Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator, said on Tuesday the
issue of the North having a civilian nuclear plan was a
“theoretical, downstream” issue that would not break a deal.

North Korea’s insistence on the right to have a civilian
nuclear program was the key sticking point in the last round.

U.S. officials have been skeptical about allowing North
Korea to pursue a nuclear program for energy production out of
concern that it might be used for military purposes.