| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
High-stakes N. Korea talks begin
BEIJING, China -- Six-party talks aimed at ending the standoff over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program have begun in China. The three days of talks are seen as an opportunity for Washington and its allies South Korea and Japan, as well as China and Russia, to present their views to North Korea and hear from Pyongyang about its concerns. North Korea says it wants security guarantees from the U.S. before it will begin to dismantle its touted nuclear weapons program. Washington, meanwhile, wants the program scrapped unconditionally. "If the North Koreans don't walk out, we will consider it a success," said one U.S. official in Washington Tuesday. The Beijing meet is the culmination of months of frantic diplomatic scrambling, particularly by Beijing, seeking to cultivate some common ground for Pyongyang and Washington. The talks, to be held at Beijing's exclusive Diaoyutai state guest house, will run from Wednesday to Friday. A senior State Department official in Washington said the talks are only the beginning of a process, and no concrete accomplishments are expected to come from the session. This senior official said the United States would not be offering inducements at the talks to encourage North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program or to finally comply with previously violated agreements. The U.S. delegation is "not going with some package of rewards in anticipation of progress," the official said. The senior official said the U.S. delegation, led by James Kelly, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, will attempt to convince North Korea that its nuclear ambitions will not enhance its security. The delegation will urge Pyongyang to submit to "a verifiable end" of its nuclear program. While declining to describe what specifically the United States wants in terms of verification, the official said a "return to full compliance of the (Non-Proliferation Treaty) is an admirable goal, but that is not either the beginning or end of the process." While the United States will not offer inducements, the official said, the U.S. delegation will listen to what the other countries at the table propose. China has said its position is that the Korean Peninsula must be nuclear free but that North Korea's security concerns need also to be addressed. (Time to act, says China) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov was confident the talks would produce at least more promises of further discussions. "We will strive to propel the talks to go on," Losyukov was quoted as saying by Xinhua agency. U.S. officials have told CNN in recent weeks that the Bush administration is prepared to support a package of incentives for Pyongyang's guarantee that it will freeze, and eventually verifiably dismantle, its nuclear program. The deal would include economic incentives, the officials said, such as an end to a long-standing trade embargo and U.S. assistance in helping North Korea secure loans from international lending institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank. But one official said consultations on lifting sanctions would only take place once North Korea took "irreversible" steps to dismantle its nuclear capability. "You can't just turn off the lights at Yongbyon and that's it," he said. "Freezing would be a first initial step, but we want the plutonium out of the facility." The issue of North Korean proliferation will also be high on the agenda. One official called North Korea an "active exporter" of weapons, and said the United States has "come to realize the providing of (weapons of mass destruction) to those who would do harm is probably the most active threat to the American people." Although the talks will focus primarily on North Korea's nuclear program, officials have not ruled out the possibility of other topics of concern coming up, including North Korea's human rights record, missile program, army and the issue of Japanese abductees. North Korea has consistently called for a non-aggression pact or treaty from the United States. While the Bush administration has said it has no plans for such a treaty, Secretary of State Colin Powell has also said there would be a way for the United States to convey officially that its intentions toward the North are not hostile. U.S. officials have suggested one possibility could be a "communiqué" of sorts approved by the participants at the Beijing summit in which all the parties would guarantee North Korea's security in exchange for an agreement by Pyongyang to freeze its nuclear program. "We are ready for a full discussion across and around this table," the senior State Department official said, adding the United States has made clear it will "talk in detail" about how to address North Korea's security concerns. The talks come on the heels of the sudden resignation of Charles "Jack" Pritchard, the Bush administration's North Korea envoy. Although the State Department said Pritchard's resignation had nothing to do with policy, U.S. officials admit Pritchard did not subscribe to some of the more hawkish views toward North Korea within the Bush administration, including those subscribed to by Undersecretary for Arms Control John Bolton. -- CNN Senior Executive Producer Richard Griffiths in Beijing and State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel and Producer Elise Labott in Washington contributed to this report.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
