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North Korea says 6-party talks could resume mid-Sept

Posted on: Monday, 29 August 2005, 12:52 CDT

By Nopporn Wong-Anan

PYONGYANG (Reuters) - North Korea blamed war games between South Korea and the United States on Monday for a delay in resuming six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programs, but said negotiations could resume in the week of September 12.

The talks had been scheduled to resume this week, but a spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry said Pyongyang thought it would be best to wait until after the joint U.S.-South Korean drills were over to resume the nuclear discussions.

"Our position is to resume six-way talks in the week of September 12 by when some of the dust of war exercises has subsided ... this is all what we can offer at this stage," the spokesman told KCNA news agency, according to Yonhap new agency.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack played down the delay, saying: "If the date is the week of September 12th, then we're ready to go back the week of September 12th."

"We've seen no indication that anybody is backing off their commitment to returning to the talks," he told reporters, adding that China was working with others to set a date.

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun said earlier on Monday the fourth round of talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and China might resume "just before the end of September."

"If things are going well, mid-September is possible," Paek said, speaking through a translator to a small group of reporters accompanying Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon on a visit to the North Korean capital.

The fourth round of talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to scrap its atomic weapons programs in return for security guarantees and economic aid went into recess on August 7.

Paek too blamed the delay on annual war games between the United States and South Korea, that run from August 22 to September 2 and consist of computer-simulated drills meant to test the readiness of their forces and coordination of command posts.

North Korea routinely denounces any joint military exercise with U.S. and South Korean forces as a preparation for invasion and a prelude to actual war.

McCormack said the drills were "an annual defensive exercise involving the U.S. and South Korean forces that poses no threat to the North."

He urged all parties to return to the talks as soon as possible and "resume the business-like atmosphere that they demonstrated during the most recent session of the talks."

North Korea has been playing the nuclear card to win diplomatic and economic benefits since a standoff began in October 2002, after Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to a secret program to enrich uranium, violating a 1994 accord.

North Korea has since denied having such a program beyond its known plutonium plant, but said this year for the first time that it had nuclear weapons, arguing that it needed them to deter a hostile United States.

WATCHING HU

Pyongyang said on Saturday that Washington's decision to appoint a special envoy to monitor human rights in North Korea had cast a shadow over the talks. McCormack said the appointment had nothing to do with the six-party talks.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, wrapping up a three-day visit to Pyongyang, said the date was not important.

"The important thing is all the parties agreed to resume talks and we all have kept (in) contact and negotiation in the framework of the six-party talks" during the recess, Wu said.

In Seoul, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Kyu-hyung said the talks were likely to resume after Chinese President Hu Jintao's September 5-9 visit to the United States and his meeting with President George W. Bush.

Some analysts said the reason for the delay might be that Pyongyang wanted to assess the outcome of the summit between China, its main ally, and the United States, the country it considers its main adversary.

"My guess is that North Korea wants to look at the result of the U.S.-China summit meeting," said Kim Sung-han of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul.

"North Korea wants to be seen negotiating seriously, as does the United States," he said, but the two sides remained too far apart on the key issue of Pyongyang's right to a civilian nuclear program to be able to reach agreement soon.

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

Other analysts suggested that Pyongyang might be trying to stall for time in the hope that a drawn-out process would make it difficult for the other five parties to keep a united front.

Source: REUTERS

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