Annan backs six-party North Korea nuclear talks

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on
Tuesday urged the resumption of multilateral talks aimed at
ending North Korea’s nuclear programs, saying it offered the
best chance of resolving the standoff.

“Secretary-General Annan said he supported the six-party
talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem and hoped it
would resume at an early time,” South Korean presidential
spokesman Chung Tae-ho quoted Annan as saying during a visit to
the country.

Annan met South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Tuesday
and also discussed Seoul’s efforts to encourage Pyongyang to
open up to the world and reform, Chung said in a statement.

North Korea said last year it had nuclear weapons, and
satellite photos released this week showed signs of new
activity at the country’s main nuclear complex in Yongbyon.

The six-party talks — involving South and North Koreas,
the United States, Japan, China and Russia — have hit a snag
over a U.S. crackdown on firms it suspects of aiding the North
in illicit activities and have been deadlocked since November.

Washington restored full diplomatic ties with Libya on
Monday, rewarding a longtime foe for scrapping its weapons of
mass destruction programs and signaling incentives for Iran and
North Korea if they do the same. Tripoli declared in December
2003 it was abandoning its weapons programs.

South Korea had hoped that high-level bilateral military
talks with the North starting on Tuesday could focus on
reopening railway links across the heavily militarised border,
which are physically near completion but remain held up because
of reluctance by Pyongyang’s military.

But North Korean delegates led by Lieutenant General Kim
Yong-chol rejected talks on the railway and instead wanted
negotiations on redrawing a disputed maritime border in the
Yellow Sea, pool reports from the talks said.

The talks at the Panmunjom truce village are due to run
until Thursday.

South and North Korea remain technically at war under a
truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.