US offers olive branch to North Korea
The US offered today to give energy aid and a security guarantee to North Korea if it dismantles its nuclear programme.
North Korea would have to begin dismantling work after a three-month preparatory stage, said US officials at six-nation talks in Beijing
North Korea's diplomats did not immediately reply to the ”very complex” proposal, the US officials said.
The seven-page plan holds out the possibility of Washington lifting economic sanctions on North Korea and beginning steps toward forming normal diplomatic relations, the officials said.
It is meant to break an impasse in talks that began last year, while trying to ensure North Korea has incentives to follow through with the dismantling of its nuclear programme.
Pyongyang’s envoy to the talks said the North is willing to abandon efforts to develop nuclear weapons if the United States ends its “hostile policy” and agrees to its demand for compensation.
Efforts by the North to possess atomic arms are “intended to protect ourselves” from the threat of a US nuclear attack, said Kim Gye Gwan, a North Korean vice foreign minister said.
“Therefore, if the United States gives up its hostile policy toward us, we are prepared to give up in a transparent way all plans related to nuclear weapons,” he said.
But Pyongyang also demanded that Washington withdraw its call for a complete and irreversible dismantling of its nuclear programme, casting doubt on hopes for a breakthrough in the third round of talks among the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia.
Two previous rounds failed to produce major progress, and the chief US envoy this week saw “no particular reason to be optimistic.”
Kim also said the United States must accept the North’s demand for aid in exchange for a nuclear freeze. If Washington agrees to both points, “we are prepared to submit specific proposals concerning freezing the nuclear programme”, Kim said.
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