|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Richardson: N. Koreans want talks
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea spews hostile rhetoric as a way of trying to obtain something from another nation, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Sunday, one day after ending meetings with a North Korean delegation over the country's suspected nuclear weapons program. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations told ABC's "This Week" he believes the Asian nation would be willing soon to participate in direct talks aimed at curbing their weaponry. "The North Koreans, they don't negotiate like we do. They don't have our same mentality. They're isolated. It's like a time warp of the '50s when you step into Pyongyang," Richardson said. "They believe that in order to get something, they have to lay out additional cards -- step up the rhetoric, be more belligerent," he said.(Richardson recaps talks) Despite this tactic, he urged the Bush administration "to pick up the phone" and begin direct talks with the nation's leaders. The United States also should continue engaging other countries in an effort to halt potential nuclear threats. Richardson, who was U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration, has had extensive dealings with the North Koreans and acted with the approval of the Bush administration by holding three days of meetings with a North Korean delegation in New Mexico. The delegation included Han Song Ryol, North Korea's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, and Mun Jong Chol, first secretary of the country's U.N. contingent. Richardson stressed he was not acting as a negotiator but believed he paved the way for more talks. "We want Asia to be stable. So I think the next logical step is direct dialogue, direct engagement, and that's what the administration said they're ready to do under proper conditions," he said. Richardson said the North Koreans, who recently withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, told him during the talks they were prepared not to build nuclear weapons and to freeze work on nuclear plants, but they wanted to talk first. "Eventually, they want food assistance and investment from the West but still can't get away from their aggressive tactic," Richardson said. "Their big card is probably two nuclear weapons, that they have reprocessing of uranium facilities, that they have 1.5 million troops on the border with South Korea. "It doesn't make sense to provoke them. The 'axis of evil' statement in the past was not helpful here," he said, referring to President Bush's State of the Union address last year that named North Korea, Iraq and Iran as possible threats. He recommended the United States agree not to threaten North Korea in exchange for its promise to freeze its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and a uranium reprocessing facility, and possibly to let inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency verify its weaponry.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
