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SLUG: 2-298520 North Korea / Diplomacy (L)
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DATE=01/18/03 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT TITLE=NORTH KOREA/ DIPLOMACY (L) NUMBER=2-298520 BYLINE=JIM RANDLE DATELINE=BEIJING CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: Top international diplomats say North Korea and the United States must start talking and resolve their nuclear dispute and also start addressing a looming humanitarian crisis. V-O-A's Jim Randle has more from Beijing, where envoys stopped on their way to and from high level talks with North Korea. TEXT: United Nations special envoy, Maurice Strong, says the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula is overshadowing a terrible food shortage that threatens six to eight-million people in isolated, impoverished North Korea. /// STRONG ACT 1 /// There is no question that assistance is a life and death matter for many people. /// END ACT /// Mr. Strong, who spoke in Beijing Saturday after several days of talks in North Korea, says the nuclear dispute could "get out of hand" if Washington and Pyongyang don't start listening to each other. /// STRONG ACT 2 /// They are talking past each other rather than to each Other. So there is a serious and ominous risk that the crisis could escalate. The problem is a breakdown of trust and communication. /// END ACT /// Mr. Strong, on a special mission for the Secretary General of the United Nations, says the positions of the two sides are not far apart. Meantime, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov left Beijing (Saturday) headed for several days of talks in Pyongyang. He says he will speak with the North Korean foreign minister and other officials. The veteran negotiator says his mission is to listen carefully to North Korea's point of view. He says there are ways for the two sides to work things out. /// LOSYUKOV ACT /// All the sides are keeping some room for improvement, and some doors open for further negotiations. And this is what we have to explore in more depth. /// END ACT /// Moscow has called for a nuclear free Korean Peninsula, along with security guarantees and economic help for North Korea. Both Washington and Pyongyang have said they want a dialogue but neither has met the other's conditions for such talks. This month, Washington formally offered to hold talks on how North Korea would dismantle its nuclear program. But Pyongyang rejected the offer because it did not come with formal security guarantees -- just verbal assurances that Washington has no hostile intentions. The crisis erupted in October when the United States said North Korea had a secret nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang has since denied this, but moved to restart nuclear facilities idled under a 1994 agreement with the United States. North Korea also sparked deep global concern by pulling out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, expelling U-N nuclear monitors and threatening to resume ballistic missile tests. (Signed) NEB/HK/JR/JO/RH |
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