Gates: nuclear talks possible if North Korea stops 'dangerous provocations'

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates today hinted that Washington might be willing to renew nuclear talks with North Korea without preconditions.

On Friday, before meeting here with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Secretary Gates said talks with North Korea were possible if the North ceased “dangerous provocations” and took “concrete steps” to meet its obligations.

"We could see a return to the six-party talks” whenever North Korea gave reason to believe that negotiations could be “productive and conducted in good faith," he said. Six-party talks were last held in Beijing in December 2008.

While Gates's comments may have appeared strong, they did not include a clear call for North Korea to give up its nuclear program as a prelude to renewing six-party talks, which North Korea has called for “with no preconditions.”

However, South Korea has rejected the notion of returning to talks without preconditions. On Friday, Mr. Lee called for US "cooperation" on the North Korean nuclear issue.

Gates's aims in Asia

Gates’s remarks came after fence-mending stops in China and Japan. In three days in China, he sought to reopen communications with military leaders upset by US arms sales to Taiwan. In Japan, he defended the need for the US to keep 49,000 troops in the country for defense against both North Korea and China, which he warned might “behave more assertively toward its neighbors” if US troops were withdrawn.

In South Korea, where the US has 28,500 troops, Gates encountered deeper sensitivities about North Korea after two recent attacks – the sinking of the South Korean navy vessel that killed 46 people and an artillery barrage on a South Korean island in November that killed two South Korean marines and two civilians.

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