• Military

• WMD Menu                           

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

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Six-way talks unlikely to be held this month

2004-01-06

Major holidays will likely push back to next month, or later, the second round of six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear stalemate, a senior presidential official said on Monday (Jan. 5).

However, the nations involved, which also include the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, continue to negotiate behind the scenes in the hope of making the upcoming meeting more productive, National Security Adviser Ra Jong-yil told reporters.

"It seems difficult (to hold the meeting) in January when China celebrates the Lunar New Year and Russia has its Christmas," he said.

The six-nation effort to halt the North Korean nuclear program began with a meeting in Beijing in August and efforts to reconvene the discussions last month fell through.

The main difficulty has been over Washington's opposition to promising any economic aid or security pledges before the North commits to dismantling its nuclear weapons program completely.

However, Pyongyang could reveal details of its nuclear complex in Yeongbyeon when two private U.S. delegations visit the country this week, the presidential official said.

"Although they are not sponsored by the U.S. government, there is a possibility that North Korea will show its Yeongbyeon nuclear facility to these two teams," he said. Ra added that the communist country could try to either soften its hard-line stance on the nuclear issue or pressure the United States by demonstrating its nuclear abilities.

"In my opinion, I would like to believe Pyongyang is taking a flexible stance for reconciliation and negotiation," he said. "What's important is how the six nations cope with the situation rather than to figure out what the North's real intention is."

A private delegation of American experts on North Korea, including a former White House official, will visit North Korea today through Saturday and be joined by two senior staff aides of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

There has been no outside access to the nuclear facility at Yeongbyeon since United Nations inspectors were expelled at the end of 2002.

Meanwhile, Ra dismissed a media report that Washington asked Seoul to slow the pace of inter-Korean projects to keep pace with developments in the North Korean nuclear issue. "We've not received any request like that from the United States," he said in a news briefing at Cheong Wa Dae.

He also denied that a senior South Korean official would visit the United States soon to discuss the issue with officials of the Bush administration.

Ra reaffirmed Seoul's official stance that promoting inter-Korean cooperation would eventually help resolve the North's nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue.

Source : www.korea.net