No breakthrough in US talks with North Korea

The US and North Korea today stepped up diplomacy at international arms talks, meeting one-on-one to address the communist nation’s nuclear weapons program and alleged financial crimes that have been an obstacle to the disarmament negotiations.

But US officials gave no indications of any early breakthrough after the second day of the latest round of six-nation disarmament talks – which have failed over more than three years of meetings to prevent the communist nation from further developing its nuclear program that culminated with its first-ever atomic detonation on October 9.

“We don’t have really any breakthroughs to report,” said the main US envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill.

The North entered this week’s talks restating a catalogue of its long-held demands, emboldened as many experts predicted by its confirmed nuclear status - and raising doubts about an imminent resolution of the stand-off that began in late 2002.

Hill conceded the negotiations faced an international test to prove the five partners involved – China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US – could convince the North to disarm.

“We need to establish credibility with that marketplace of opinion and we need to show that in fact this can lead us to the goal, because we cannot accept anything less than the goal of denuclearization,” he said.

No end date has been set for the talks, but Hill added, ”I really want to see something get done this week.” Earlier, the US diplomat said a failure of the talks could lead to more sanctions against Pyongyang.

The North pledged in September 2005 at the talks to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for security guarantees, diplomatic recognition and aid.

But just days before that agreement, the US blacklisted a Macau bank where the regime held accounts, alleging it was complicit in the North’s alleged counterfeiting of 100 dollar bills and money laundering.

The North later blamed that move for its refusal to attend the nuclear talks for more than 13 months, but it agreed to return after its nuclear test to discuss the financial issue. When the nuclear talks opened Monday, the North demanded anew that the measures be lifted as a precondition to disarm.

US and North Korean financial experts met for about three hours at the US Embassy today, but the head of the American delegation said the issue wouldn’t see any quick solution.

“This is going to have to be a long-term process by which we all work to address the fundamental underlying concerns that we’ve expressed in the past, and that are frankly the concerns of the international financial community,” said Daniel Glaser, the US Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes.

The two sides were to meet again tomorrow at the North Korean Embassy.

At the nuclear talks, Hill praised China’s renewed will to persuade its neighbour North Korea to disarm since the nuclear test. Hill said Beijing had a “very special role to play”.

“To solve the problem of the (North’s) nuclear ambitions is going to require a great effort by China,” he said. ”We cannot do it by ourselves, we need to work in this multilateral framework.”

China backed a UN Security Council resolution sanctioning the North after its atomic detonation, but has refrained from tough moves to cut off the North’s economic lifeline. China is the isolated country’s largest trading partner.

The North itself must also work to resolve the crisis to establish where it stands in the world, Hill said.

“I really do believe that at the end of this six-party process, however it turns out, it will help determine that country’s future in a way I think is fairly profound,” he said.