How to jump-start North Korean nuclear disarmament talks?
Though differences remain great, diplomats hope to resume talks right after Bush's State of the Union address.
In an effort to
spur the start of stalled six-nation nuclear non-proliferation talks with North Korea, a bipartisan United States congressional delegation is scheduled to visit the highly secretive nation next week, reports the
Associated Press.
N. Korea and the United States have been engaged in a standoff since October 2002 over Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons program.
The US, North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of talks since 2003 to find a way of ending N. Korea's nuclear weapons programs. But no breakthroughs were reported and the nations have yet to set a new date for a new round of talks.
N. Korea boycotted a fourth round of the talks scheduled for Beijing last September, opting to "wait out the November US presidential elections" according to many analysts, says
AP.
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., is coordinating the congressional trip. He led a similar delegation to Pyongyang in May 2003.
Anticipating the Congressional visit, N. Korea announced on Friday that any talks would be "meaningless as long as the United States does not abandon its hostile policy," and claimed that the real US goal was to topple the N. Korean government. It strongly criticized what it characterized as US efforts to spread "a theory of a N. Korean collapse," says
AP.
Agence France Presse (AFP) quotes N. Korea's ruling party newspaper,
Rodong Sinmun as saying in a commentary on Wednesday, that N. Koreans "will
never lay down their arms unless the US abandons its policy of aggression" against the communist state.
The commentary accused the United States of seeking to disarm N. Korea 'ideologically, morally and militarily and then swallow it up as it did Iraq.'
On Thursday
Reuters quoting an "unidentified diplomatic source familiar with the talks," carried a report that the United States
set a deadline of early February for a reply from N. Korea on whether the communist state will return to six-party talks on its nuclear arms program.
If Pyongyang does not reply positively by the time President Bush gives his State of the Union address, the United States will prepare to bring the matter to the UN Security Council.
But on Friday, the
US denied that it had decided to seek a solution to the N. Korean nuclear issue through the UN Security Council unless the communist state makes a commitment to returning to the talks by early next month, reports, S. Korea's
Yonhap News.
S. Korea's Seoul-based newspaper
Kyunghyang Shipmun, reported on Wednesday that N. Korea has set up a new war plan focusing on defending itself from US attacks and highlighting underground protection facilities.
The S. Korean daily said the plan put high priority on "a defense strategy" rather than the previous offense-oriented war scenario.
North Korea, which has a 1.2 million-strong army, has allegedly built an immense web of underground tunnels since the 1950-1953 Korean War, consisting of 8,200 underground facilities to house key government offices and military command posts. ...Some 180 defense industry factories were underground in North Korea. At its massive annual New Year's rally held in Pyongyang, the Kim Jong Il regime announced "it would
place top priority for this year on increasing agricultural production... of more food grains," reports
UPI.
The rally was broadcast on N. Korean television. This caused lead analysts in Seoul to conclude that the North is "nearly out of food" says
UPI.
Meanwhile, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, says the threat posed by N. Korea's nuclear weapons program is
worsening and needs to be resolved as soon as possible. In an interview with
Reuters, ElBaradei said he hopes the issue could be resolved by the end of this year.
El-Baradei said a team of IAEA inspectors might return to North Korea in 2005 to conduct rigorous inspections that can provide guarantees to the world that all North Korean nuclear facilities and activities meet UN safeguards. N. Korea kicked out nuclear inspectors in late 2002 as a rift with the United States deepened. IAEA officials have not been allowed to return since. ElBaradei also expressed his hopes of achieving a set of agreements that could ensure N. Korea's nuclear weapons activities are "
dismantled irreversibly and visibly to the international community," reports
Reuters.
In return, other countries could address N. Korea's security concerns as well as the country's humanitarian needs, says ElBaradei.
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