|
Six-party talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear program hit a snag Thursday afternoon, when an afternoon round-table session was put off after the morning¡¯s bilateral session between the U.S. and the Stalinist country made no progress.
The U.S. and North Korea reportedly confirmed one another's positions as stated in their opening addresses clause by clause. Both sides are said to have taken a workman-like attitude to bilateral talks but failed to narrow their differences.
A high-ranking official in the U.S. delegation said the two sides agree that this round of talks must produce results. He said the two countries were focusing on what points could be included in a draft agreement.
Russia's Interfax agency quoted a North Korean source as saying, "The United States is calling for international inspections of nuclear facilities in September, and based on those results a schedule to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. Due to the unilateral demands by the U.S. it's becoming difficult to reach a substantive agreement at the six-party talks."
South Korean chief negotiator Song Min-soon said it appeared the talks will last at least until Friday. ¡°As of now, I don't know if they'll continue next week," he added.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang is calling for the Korean Peninsula to become a nuclear-free zone, apparently a step up from mere "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" it has talked about since 2002.
Experts say that a nuclear-free zone is a much more inclusive concept than is provided by the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula of 1991 concluded by both Koreas. The declarations says neither North nor South Korea can test, manufacture, receive, possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons, nor are they permitted reprocessing or uranium enrichment facilities, while nuclear energy can be used only for peaceful purposes.
But a nuclear-free zone, according to a North Korean periodical, is a region where not only nuclear weapons development but also foreign nuclear bases are banned. It would also ban peaceful use of nuclear energy and the passage through the territory, territorial waters and airspace of ships or planes armed with nuclear weapons. Thus it was no accident that North Korean chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan cited as mandatory conditions a ban on bringing nuclear weapons in from outside the region and the scrapping of any nuclear strike-first strategy.
Diplomats believe North Korea wants to stop U.S. aircraft carriers or nuclear submarines from docking in South Korea as well block deployment of American tactical weapons. The establishment of a nuclear-free zone could seriously curtail exercises by the U.S. Forces in Korea. "It¡¯s something neither South Korea nor the United States can accept," a Foreign Ministry official said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
