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Washington 'pleased' with talks
From CNN Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Chinoy
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- According to U.S. administration officials, the United States is "pleased by the outcome" of the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program, but "by no means triumphant." "We have a long, long way to go," one official said, "but the U.S. delegation is recommending that the U.S. stay the course" in continuing the six-nation negotiating process. "The president set a policy direction that had promise and has promise," said one U.S. official. "We know the North Koreans are the most difficult of interlocutors, but we are committed to the process." The officials said they were pleased by the chemistry of the talks, not between Washington and Pyongyang, but among the other participants: the U.S., China, Russia, South Korea and Japan. The U.S. officials said the three-day meeting had led to a situation where the other nations, except for North Korea, no longer see the nuclear issue as just a problem between Washington and Pyongyang. That was particularly true after all the participants heard a North Korean presentation in which the North Korean delegate acknowledged his country possesses nuclear capability. The U.S. officials explained the sequence of events concerning the North Korean delegate's revelation that it had nuclear weapons as follows: On Wednesday, in his formal presentation, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly emphasized that the U.S. goal was a complete, verifiable and irreversible end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Kelly did not spell out a "road map" to achieve this goal, other than to stress this principle. But he also emphasized that President Bush has said the U.S. has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea, although Kelly stressed that the U.S. would not accept Pyongyang's demand for a non-aggression treaty. But he did say Washington was open to exploring other options. In the informal bilateral session with the North Korean delegation later Wednesday, the North Koreans said that they did possess nuclear weapons, and raised the possibility both of conducting a nuclear test to prove they did indeed have such weapons, and to show they had the means to deliver a bomb. The North Koreans said they had been forced to go nuclear because of the "hostile policy" of the US. In response, Kelly said this was a very serious matter and that the U.S. would share it with the other participants. On Thursday, the North Koreans made a long presentation to the entire gathering, and repeated the same points they had made privately to Kelly, to the distress of the other participants. The U.S. officials said one could not exclude the seriousness of the North Korean statement.
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