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Washington has told Seoul and Tokyo it will end six-party talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear program if the fourth round scheduled to start in Beijing next week produces no results, Japan¡¯s Asahi Shimbun reported Monday.
Quoting sources connected to the talks, the paper said the U.S. revealed the position in discussions of the three countries¡¯ chief negotiators in Seoul on Thursday.
The paper said the three countries plan to keep the next round going until progress is made. They are looking at repeated bouts of intense negotiations interspersed with 10-14 day breaks, according to the daily. If that still produces no results, Washington will declare the six-party negotiations over and apply pressure. The paper said South Korea and Japan agreed concrete progress was needed in the next round.
A South Korean government official said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hinted at a deadline for a resolution of the dispute by the end of the year when she visited Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing earlier this month. He said Washington had no intention of getting embroiled in fruitless marathon talks, but neither did it plan to let North Korea off easily given how hard the parties had to work to get it back to the talks. He said if there was no end in sight by the end of the year, the U.S. could ask talk partners China, Russia, South Korea and Japan to get tough on Pyongyang.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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