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The opportunity provided by the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Kuala Lumpur to discuss reviving talks on the North Korean nuclear weapons programs without the reclusive state looks now remote.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing reportedly expressed concern that going ahead without North Korea will only further alienate the renegade nation and said he was not on board. Since North Korea holds firm to the position that it will not return to the six-party talks unless US$24 million frozen in accounts at the Banco Delta Asia in Macau due to U.S. sanctions is returned, the talks are ¡°realistically impossible," according to a government official in Seoul.
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Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon (left) and his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing embrace at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center on Wednesday.
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Korea and the U.S. have on Friday decided to seek an eight-party meeting that would include the original participants except North Korea as well as ARF host Malaysia, Canada and Australia. Li told South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon he would take part in such a meeting. The eight-way talks are not a replacement for the six-way talks but rather a different forum to discuss North Korea¡¯s missile tests on July 5, and come apparently at the urging of Canada and Australia, which are concerned that they come within the range of the Taepodong-2 missile the North failed to launch that day.
Meanwhile, the U.S. chief negotiator to the six-party talks Christopher Hill said Tuesday he would not like to talk about what South Korea should do to guard against North Korea, adding he believed Seoul ¡°already knows¡± what to do.
Hill made the remarks on his way to the ARF.
He called on all UN member states to heed UN Security Council Resolution 1695 and prevent money and technology from going to North Korea to help its missile development -- an indirect reminder to South Korea to do its part.
Hill said his government made it clear that it is willing to work with North Korea to resolve the problems caused by its illegal actions ¡°if it ready to stop them.¡± But he added Pyongyang needs to be aware that Washington will not tolerate illegalities simply for the sake of resuming the six-party talks.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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