• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

U.S. Hopes Six-Party Talks Can Be Model for Northeast Asia

18 August 2005

State's Hill says talks on North Korea's weapons programs strengthen ties

By Todd Bullock
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United States hopes that the six-party process to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs can serve as an "embryonic structure for Northeast Asia" to create new bilateral and multilateral ties, says Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill.

Northeast Asia is one of the most dynamic regions in the world, and while its countries are exporting various consumer goods, those countries also need to promote political stability and good relations, Hill said August 17 in remarks to the Asia Society.

Hill recently returned from Beijing where he has been participating in the fourth round of Six-Party Talks involving North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. Thirteen days of negotiations did not result in a final agreement, and the six parties will return to the negotiating table the week of August 29.

According to Hill, the current round of Six-Party Talks has demonstrated cooperative relationships, particularly between the United States and China, on issues of mutual concern.

The assistant secretary noted that while the Six-Party Talks were under way, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick was engaged in another set of talks with his Chinese counterpart on the overall strategic relationship between their countries.

"We have really found ways to communicate and found ways to cooperate," Hill said.

China has taken a very important role in the Six-Party Talks, not only by hosting the talks but by producing a succession of draft agreements, he said.

"[B]asically what they have done is taken the comments from the various participants and tried to meld those together into a draft," he said, adding that "this [effort] was a good example of the Chinese trying to keep everyone working together" on this process.

Turning to the status of the negotiations, Hill said the recess is important in helping North Korean officials make a decision regarding what they want for the country's future.

"It's not just a question of giving up weapons programs ... that they've been developing for some two or three decades, it's also a very fundamental question of which way North Korea wants to go," he said.

The assistant secretary cited China and South Korea as possible economic development models for North Korea.

"North Korea is a country that is having a continued deterioration in electricity supply," Hill said, noting the country is currently generating less than 30 percent of its overall capacity.

"You cannot make progress without electricity, without energy," he said. "And so there's a very serious issue there that needs to be addressed, and this overall proposal does address this."

Hill said the participants were encouraging North Korea's involvement in bilateral economic programs, especially with South Korea, and also were trying to develop a "road map" to help North Korea establish multilateral relationships -- for example, with the World Bank and other development banks.

The assistant secretary said the parties are discussing a package of issues related to normalization of North Korea's bilateral relations with its negotiating partners, including eventual normalization of relations with the United States.

"[W]hat will provide security to North Korea is not a few nuclear weapons," he said, "but rather … good relations with neighbors and good relations with the United States."

According to Hill, there was "very strong unanimity among all our delegations" on the need for North Korea to end its nuclear programs as soon as possible and to look for ways to re-enter the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with safeguards from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Hill also said it is important for North Korea to understand that the "price of joining the international community is that people are going to start looking at your human rights record."

"I think that's just inevitable, and the sooner they understand it, the more progress we can make," he said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)