US envoy says nuclear talks still 'in business'

The chief US envoy to talks on ending North Korea’s atomic weapons programme met today with his North Korean counterpart seeking to break a stalemate, and said afterward that the negotiations are still “in business".

US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill had said the six-nation talks were at a standstill over the North’s demands for a nuclear reactor in exchange for dismantling its weapons programmes, and that he wasn’t planning to meet the North Koreans.

But Hill later revealed that he had “good” discussions with the North’s chief delegate, Kim Kye Gwan, earlier.

“At this point, I don’t know where these will lead,” Hill said of the meetings, speaking after a lunch with the South Korean and Japanese negotiators. However, he added: “We are still in business.”

More meetings were set for today, including a gathering of all six delegations.

The US today also urged host China to persuade North Korea, its longtime ally, to give up its nuclear weapons without receiving a reactor.

The North has been offered economic aid, security guarantees from Washington and free electricity from South Korea in exchange for bowing to demands that it give up the weapons programme.

Hill said he thought the Chinese had a responsibility to exercise their influence over North Korea, noting that the two sides had a “very long history".

“I hope that China will feel a certain responsibility to try to convince the DPRK that the deal is there on the table and it only awaits the decision of the DPRK to take that deal,” Hill said, referring to the North by the initials of its official name.

China is the North’s last major ally and its leading supplier of food and energy aid. Beijing has earlier called for the sides to seek compromise, with an official saying all reasonable concerns of any country at the talks deserve to be considered. Japan, Russia and South Korea are also part of the nuclear negotiations.

In New York, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said any comprehensive settlement of the nuclear stand-off would have to include normalisation of relations between North Korea and the US.

Roh, who is attending a UN summit, said he was optimistic the crisis could be resolved but that it still makes him nervous.

“Every time I think about the North Korean nuclear weapons issue, I always pray to God,” he said. “I ask you to do the same.”

Despite the nuclear stand-off, the North and South have continued reconciliation efforts while remaining technically at war. Today, at high-level talks between the two sides in Pyongyang, the Koreas pledged to work to ensure peace and reduce military tensions on the divided peninsula.

Chinese officials would not immediately comment on a report by Japan’s Kyodo News agency that Beijing was drafting a new proposal for the talks.

Citing unidentified sources, Kyodo also reported that North Korea told other nations at the negotiations that it would boost its production of nuclear material if its demand for such a reactor isn’t met.

“The basic stumbling block has to do with the issue of providing a light-water reactor,” North Korean spokesman Hyun Hak Bong said yesterday in the first comment from the delegation since the talks resumed.

No end date has been set for the negotiations. The latest nuclear talks reconvened following a five-week recess after the last session failed to yield an agreement during 13 days of meetings.

The US has said giving a reactor to the North is out of the question, given the cost and the communist nation’s history of deceit over its pursuit of nuclear technology to build weapons.

The North was promised two such reactors under a 1994 deal that fell apart in late 2002 after the latest nuclear crisis erupted. Light-water reactors are less easily diverted for weapons use.

“This is a problem related to the US’ political will to get rid of its hostile policy toward us and peacefully co-exist,” Hyun said.

But the North Korean spokesman added his government still hoped to “solve the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue.”

Hill called the reactor demand a “non-starter".

North Korea, “not for the first time, has chosen to isolate itself,” Hill said yesterday evening. The country “has a rather sad and long history of making the wrong decision".