North Korea abandons talks with south

EFFORTS to bring North Korea back to disarmament talks were in tatters last night after Pyongyang stormed out of a meeting with the south and a senior US diplomat left the region after a week of shuttle diplomacy.

At the talks, the south had pressed the north to return to the nuclear talks and end its missile launches. But the north didn’t respond, and demanded more aid.

The deadlock threw the spotlight back on wrangling over a UN resolution censuring North Korea for its July 5 missile tests, which has pitted Japan against China and Russia.

Kyodo news agency reported that Japan was now prepared to work on an alternative Security Council resolution sponsored by Moscow and Beijing that urges North Korea to suspend its nuclear programmes but avoids the mandatory sanctions Tokyo has sought.

“What is important is to adopt a binding resolution,” the agency quoted an official as saying on condition of anonymity.

Tension between the two Koreas erupted at bilateral ministerial talks in the South Korean city of Pusan, where the Pyongyang delegation parried complaints about the missile tests and focused instead on economic cooperation and requests for aid.

“The south side will pay a price before the nation for causing the collapse of the ministerial talks and bringing a collapse of north-south relations that is unforeseeable now,” the North Koreans said in a statement before leaving for the airport, a day before the meeting was due to end.

The North Koreans demanded that the south stop joint military drills with the US due next year, saying it was ready to protect South Korea with its 1.2 million-strong armed forces.

That provoked an unusually biting reply from South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok that echoed the rhetoric of the years before Seoul’s determined policy of rapprochement.

“Who in the south asked you to protect our safety?” Mr Lee responded: “It would help our safety for the north not to fire missiles or develop a nuclear programme.”