|
North Korea told the U.S. during contacts in New York on Monday it wants to return to six-party talks on its nuclear program, Washington confirmed Tuesday. But the New York Times and other U.S. media said since the reclusive country set no date, many U.S. officials are skeptical whether it is sincere.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill warned the process could not be said to be back on track until a date was set and the relevant nations were all seated at the negotiating table. "We need to be careful how we characterize" North Korea's statement that it wants to come back to talks, he added.
Wang Guanya, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters Tuesday the six-party talks would restart "pretty soon, in the next few weeks." But he did not explain why he believed this, saying only China had since the last round of talks continued to work to get the negotiations restarted.
Meanwhile, Seoul said nothing concrete had been agreed during Monday¡¯s meeting between U.S. and North Korean officials at Pyongyang¡¯s UN mission. A Foreign Ministry official questioned whether "one could say Pyongyang has revealed an intention to return to talks when it doesn't speak of a date and simply talks about the principle of returning." He said North Korea ¡°must come at least one step closer to the negotiating table, but all it has done is pick up its right foot a little."
A high-ranking Unification Ministry official did not rule out that North Korea was making a vague gesture ahead of the South Korea-U.S. summit. But presidential foreign policy advisor Chung Woo-sung said the fourth round of six-party talks needed to take place in June or, at the latest, July and the Stalinist country¡¯s expression of willingness to resume talks was ¡°clearly not a bad omen."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
