N.Korea sounds cautious note on nuclear talks

By Teruaki Ueno and Jack Kim

BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korea’s chief negotiator sounded
a note of caution on Tuesday ahead of six-party talks aimed at
ending Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, saying Washington’s
actions made progress difficult.

North Korea’s official news agency went further, saying
recent comments by U.S. President George W. Bush about the
“tyrant” in North Korea “deprived us of any trust” in the U.S.
negotiators.

The latest round of talks, which bring together the two
Koreas, Japan, the United States, Russia and host China, open
on Wednesday and are expected to last three days.

“The six-party talks already have a clear direction,” the
North’s chief negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, said as he left for
Beijing. “They are like a beacon guiding the six parties toward
progress.

“But that beacon at present is far away, and moreover the
mist on the ocean is very thick and sometimes it dulls the
beacon. Some actions of the U.S. make it even more difficult,”
China’s Xinhua news agency quoted Kim as saying.

U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of
state, said on arrival in Beijing he expected a “fairly short
session” because of an Asia-Pacific summit this month.

“I think we are going to review where we are after the
agreed September statement and discuss some of the next steps,”
he said.

LIGHT WATER PLANT

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told Chinese
President Hu Jintao, on a rare visit to Pyongyang, that the
North hoped this round of talks would “produce new progress.”

The negotiators are seeking to build on an initial
disarmament agreement reached in the last round of talks in
September. But officials and experts played down the chance of
any major breakthrough.

Delegates to the six-party talks sat down to preparatory
one-on-one discussions in Beijing on Tuesday.

China met separately with delegates from Japan, Russia and
South Korea, and also planned to consult with North Korean and
U.S. delegates before the start of formal talks, Liu said.

Some analysts said the goal of the session was simply to
agree to a schedule for future working-level talks.

On September 19, North Korea agreed to “abandoning all
nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs” in return for
aid and security guarantees from the United States and other
countries. Those countries also agreed to discuss Pyongyang’s
demand for a new light-water nuclear power plant “at an
appropriate time.”

But soon afterwards North Korea said it would move toward
nuclear disarmament only if promised the nuclear plant — a
step the United States has rejected.

“TYRANT” IN NORTH KOREA

On Tuesday, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency
denounced Bush’s reference to the “tyrant” in North Korea at a
roundtable meeting with young leaders in Brazil on November 6.

“These remarks made by the U.S. chief executive … arouse
our serious concern about the prospect of implementing the
joint statement and deprive us of any trust in the negotiators
of the U.S. side to the six-party talks,” it said, quoting a
foreign ministry spokesman.

The crisis began when Washington accused North Korea in
2002 of covert nuclear arms development in violation of
international accords. Pyongyang denied the charge and promptly
withdrew from the NPT.

Then, in February this year, North Korea, branded by the
United States as part of an “axis of evil” along with Iran and
pre-war Iraq, said it did indeed have nuclear weapons.

(Additional reporting by Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo; Chris
Buckley and Lindsay Beck in Beijing; Jon Herskovitz in Seoul)