Six-party talks are focusing on the disablement of North Korea’s nuclear facilities, moving beyond the initial step of shutting them down, after the U.S. decided to free North Korea’s US$25 million in the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia. North Korea is expected to soon shut down Yongbyon nuclear facilities now the BDA issue, the main bone of contention in the Feb. 13 six-party agreement, has been resolved.

South Korea's top negotiator Chun Yung-woo said after the first plenary meeting on Monday that participating countries “want to make real progress after the initial stage, and so does North Korea.” The next key issue is how soon North Korean nuclear facilities will be disabled, he added. The participating countries hope that North Korea will start disabling its nuclear facilities -- which would make it very difficult to start them up again -- in the first half of the year and complete it by late this year. Various high-level diplomatic contacts are likely to ensure progress.

In a phone conference, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon discussed with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a meeting between the foreign ministers of the six countries in late April. In May, a forum to discuss establishing a permanent peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula will be held with the two Koreas, the U.S. and China participating. The four are the signatories to the armistice that officially still halts hostilities in the Korean War. Even rosy projections of an inter-Korean summit and a summit among the four countries in August following a meeting of foreign ministers in June are being tossed around.

Chun in his keynote speech Monday called for a separate process to discuss replacing the current truce agreement with a permanent peace framework after the six-party foreign minister talks. However, some observers say it remains to be seen if North Korea will really scrap its nuclear program, since the ways of disabling North Korea’s nuclear facilities are so far vague, and North Korea’s existing nuclear weapons have not been addressed in the six-party talks. They also warn that North Korea could drag its feet in disabling the facilities.

(englishnews@chosun.com )