North Korea considering return to six-party talks: Russian envoy
By Gary James,WNS Russia Bureau Chief
MOSCOW - North Korea still hopes six-party talks on its nuclear programme will continue and will decide on returning to the negotiating table after studying sanctions set out in a UN resolution, a Russian envoy said Sunday after visiting Pyongyang. Speaking in Beijing, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev told the RIA-Novosti news agency that North Korea was still interested in returning to negotiations.
"They said that only after analysing the UN resolution would they plan the subsequent character of their actions ... including in relation to the resumption of the six-sided process," said Alexeyev. He was to fly on to Seoul for further consultations, after the UN Security Council unanimously voted on Saturday to impose punitive sanctions on North Korea for its declared nuclear test while avoiding the threat of military force. Saturday's resolution called upon North Korea to return immediately to the six-party talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula without precondition.
The talks, which began in 2003, but stalled in November 2005, involve Russia, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and the United States. "The North Korean side several times returned to the point that the six-sided process should continue, that it is not rejecting six-sided negotiations," Alexeyev said, although he did not have high hopes that would happen. Alexeyev met his North Korean counterpart Kim Ky-kwan and other officals earlier in Pyongyang. The North Koreans had insisted on the unthreatening nature of their weapons programme, he said. Pyongyang "is ready to discuss in a constructive manner" steps to create a Korean peninsula, free from nuclear weapons, Alexeyev said. Officials had promised North Korea would "under no circumstances pass on its nuclear capabilities to another country or use them against anyone," he said.
posted by wnsworld @ 10:50 AM
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