drunkhomer
09-19-2005, 02:56 AM
U.S.: Agreement in N. Korea talks
Monday, September 19, 2005; Posted: 2:07 a.m. EDT (06:07 GMT)
China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, reported an agreement that would go even further.
"The DPRK (North Korea) is committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs," a Xinhua report said, citing a joint statement signed by participants at the talks.
"The DPRK also pledges in the statement to return, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards."
Earlier in the day, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the talks were in their final stage.
"I really think that we're at the endgame this morning," Hill said.
"DPRK (North Korea) has some demands and the question is whether anybody accepts those demands and I think we have a pretty good arrangement on that but I have to see what it looks like finally."
Monday was the seventh day of what were the fourth round of six-party talks, featuring the United States, North Korea, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. During the last session, the parties met for 13 straight days, taking a recess in early August.
Kenichiro Sasae, Chief Japanese delegate to the talks, expressed optimism ahead of Monday's sessions.
"I think that we are going to have a result today," he said. "We like to try our utmost to have a good result."
But Song Min-soon, South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister, was not as confident of success.
"It is not a question of who accepts the draft, rather it is that all sides accept it," he said.
Throughout the talks, North Korea has clung to its position of maintaining a civilian nuclear program, while Washington wants Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program.
Participants have offered numerous carrots to North Korea to get it to give up its weapons program, including economic aid and security guarantees from the United States.
North Korean officials have said that Pyongyang is looking carefully at what appears to be the Bush administration's recent conciliatory tone.
In his 2002 State of the Union Address, U.S. President George W. Bush called North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil" that is "arming to threaten the peace of the world." As recently as July, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called North Korea one of six "outposts of tyranny."
In a rare interview with CNN in the North Korean capital last month, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Kwan said Pyongyang wants to pursue a peaceful nuclear program and is willing to adopt "strict supervision" of its nuclear facilities.
"As we resolve the nuclear issue we are willing to return to the NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty) and fully abide by IAEA (U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards.
Pyongyang ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the country in December 2002, and pulled out of the NPT the following month.
"If someone is concerned with regard to our possible nuclear activities which could lead up to the manufacture of nuclear weapons out of the operations of a light-water nuclear reactor, then we can leave the operations under strict supervision," Kim said, offering to allow the United States a role in monitoring.
"We would like to pursue peaceful nuclear energy power generation and this is a quite urgent issue that faces our nation," he said.
"And this is a very appropriate policy in light of the economic situation of our country. That is why we cannot make a concession in this field."
The World Food Program says that North Korea is headed towards the worst humanitarian food crisis since the mid 1990s, when an estimated 1 million North Koreans died. WFP says 6.5 million North Koreans desperately need food aid.
Monday, September 19, 2005; Posted: 2:07 a.m. EDT (06:07 GMT)
China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, reported an agreement that would go even further.
"The DPRK (North Korea) is committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs," a Xinhua report said, citing a joint statement signed by participants at the talks.
"The DPRK also pledges in the statement to return, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards."
Earlier in the day, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the talks were in their final stage.
"I really think that we're at the endgame this morning," Hill said.
"DPRK (North Korea) has some demands and the question is whether anybody accepts those demands and I think we have a pretty good arrangement on that but I have to see what it looks like finally."
Monday was the seventh day of what were the fourth round of six-party talks, featuring the United States, North Korea, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. During the last session, the parties met for 13 straight days, taking a recess in early August.
Kenichiro Sasae, Chief Japanese delegate to the talks, expressed optimism ahead of Monday's sessions.
"I think that we are going to have a result today," he said. "We like to try our utmost to have a good result."
But Song Min-soon, South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister, was not as confident of success.
"It is not a question of who accepts the draft, rather it is that all sides accept it," he said.
Throughout the talks, North Korea has clung to its position of maintaining a civilian nuclear program, while Washington wants Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program.
Participants have offered numerous carrots to North Korea to get it to give up its weapons program, including economic aid and security guarantees from the United States.
North Korean officials have said that Pyongyang is looking carefully at what appears to be the Bush administration's recent conciliatory tone.
In his 2002 State of the Union Address, U.S. President George W. Bush called North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil" that is "arming to threaten the peace of the world." As recently as July, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called North Korea one of six "outposts of tyranny."
In a rare interview with CNN in the North Korean capital last month, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Kwan said Pyongyang wants to pursue a peaceful nuclear program and is willing to adopt "strict supervision" of its nuclear facilities.
"As we resolve the nuclear issue we are willing to return to the NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty) and fully abide by IAEA (U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards.
Pyongyang ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the country in December 2002, and pulled out of the NPT the following month.
"If someone is concerned with regard to our possible nuclear activities which could lead up to the manufacture of nuclear weapons out of the operations of a light-water nuclear reactor, then we can leave the operations under strict supervision," Kim said, offering to allow the United States a role in monitoring.
"We would like to pursue peaceful nuclear energy power generation and this is a quite urgent issue that faces our nation," he said.
"And this is a very appropriate policy in light of the economic situation of our country. That is why we cannot make a concession in this field."
The World Food Program says that North Korea is headed towards the worst humanitarian food crisis since the mid 1990s, when an estimated 1 million North Koreans died. WFP says 6.5 million North Koreans desperately need food aid.