Asia cautious over North Korea nuclear talks offer

North Korea’s neighbours reacted cautiously today as the region awoke to news that the isolated communist country was ready to accept a US proposal for six-nation talks aimed at ending a stand-off over its nuclear weapons programmes.

Overnight in Washington, US officials said they received word that North Korea would discuss the issue with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. But North Korea was silent on the matter and its neighbouring countries could not immediately comment.

The South Korean government offered no official reaction, while the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing said it had not seen the report.

Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, however, said it was a positive step, while his foreign minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, called it “extremely encouraging”.

“Perhaps North Korea is beginning to ease a little bit,” Koizumi said. “We should promote multi-lateral talks and let North Korea hear the voices of the international community.”

Indonesia, a country with close political and economic ties with both North and South Korea, applauded news of talks.

“We have an obvious interest in seeing this issue resolved,” said Marty Nalalegawa, a spokesman for Indonesia’s foreign ministry.

North Korea rattled the region last October by confirming US suspicions that it was developing uranium-based nuclear weapons.

The country has since withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, restarted a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and told US officials it had reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods.

That procedure, experts say, could yield enough plutonium to make several nuclear bombs within months. US officials have not been able to confirm that claim.

North Korea has consistently demanded one-on-one discussions with the United States, saying the nuclear issue is between it and Washington. The United States has pushed for multilateral talks, saying the issue is a regional one.

In April, officials from the United States, North Korea and China met in Beijing to review the situation. Since then, the Bush administration has insisted that Japan and South Korea be allowed to take part in a second round, and said that Russia would be a welcome participant.

US officials said yesterday that North Korea apparently felt more comfortable with a six-way discussion that included Russia rather than a five-way arrangement without Moscow.

Political analysts in north-east Asia, however, were cautious about the North’s commitment.

“It’s hard to say that North Korea wants six-way talks,” said Park June-Young, a North Korea expert at Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul.

“North Korea is probably saying it’s better to have six-way rather than five-way talks if it can’t have one-on-one talks with the United States,” she said, saying that Russia’s inclusion lends the North Korean side of the argument one more sympathetic ear.

Russia’s foreign ministry said that North Korea’s ambassador to Moscow, Pak Ui Chun, told deputy Russian foreign minister Yuri Fedotov that Pyongyang supported the six-sided talks “on resolving the current complex situation on the Korean Peninsula”.

Russia and China are seen as traditionally sympathetic to North Korea from their ties as communist counterparts during the Cold War. Relations have been strained in recent years, but the two countries are seen as exercising special influence on Pyongyang.

Beijing, the isolated North’s last major ally, has repeatedly said it does not want nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, and wants the issue resolved peacefully through negotiations.

The dispute erupted in October, when US officials said North Korea admitted that it was developing uranium-based nuclear weapons.