Skip to main content
The Web    CNN.com      Powered by
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SERVICES
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SEARCH
Web CNN.com
powered by Yahoo!
World

Hopes rise in N. Korea nuke talks

Diplomats from the six nations clasp hands before the first session of talks.
Diplomats from the six nations clasp hands before the first session of talks.

Story Tools

more video VIDEO
Six-nation talks on resolving the North Korea nuclear crisis begin in Beijing.
premium content

North Korean television's own version of reality TV, starring none other than leader Kim Jong Il.
premium content
SPECIAL REPORT
• Analysis: What are the options?
• Six-nation talks: Where they stand
• Interactive: N. Korea military might
• Timeline: Nuclear development
• Interactive: The nuclear club
• Satellite image: Nuclear facility
• Special report: Nuclear crisis
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
North Korea
China
United States
Nuclear Policies

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Six-nation talks on resolving the North Korea nuclear crisis began Wednesday in Beijing after a flurry of last minute meetings offered some hope on Pyongyang's willingness to scrap its weapons programs.

The United States and North Korea held bilateral consultations during the afternoon. A U.S. embassy spokeswoman characterized the meeting as "an informal discussion."

After the opening session, South Korea said it had proposed "countermeasures" if the North froze its nuclear program and showed signs of dismantling it, The Asosciated Press reports.

Seoul's head delegate, Lee Soo-hyuck, said he presented the proposal during the opening session.

"If it is such a freeze, we can push for countermeasures," Lee told reporters, using a term that is believed to refer to compensation for the North's giving up its nuclear ambitions.

He did not elaborate, and it was unclear if his proposal had been directly endorsed by the United States.

The talks -- between North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States -- took six months of diplomatic shuffling after a first round last August failed to make any progress other than a loose commitment to meet again.

Unlike the August meeting, this round of discussions, which began Wednesday, has no time limit or deadline.

At loggerheads are Pyongyang and the United States. Both have refused to back down on their stance since the standoff flared in October 2002 when U.S. officials said Pyongyang admitted to secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

North Korea, labeled a rogue state and part of an axis of evil with Iran and Iraq by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002, wants a security guarantee from Washington that the U.S. will not attack before it will freeze its nuclear programs.

It also wants fuel and economic aid as well as other concessions.

But the U.S. has demanded North Korea must first dismantle all its nuclear weapons programs and Washington will not be blackmailed into any concessions.

"The dismantlement of their nuclear weapons program is critical to any further movement in the talks," said John Bolton, undersecretary of state.

However, prior to Wednesday's talks parties hinted they might be willing to accept some sort of compromise if it would lead to a resolution.

Robert Galluci, a former diplomat who held talks with the North Koreans last decade, told CNN "the buzz" in Washington was that U.S. special envoy James Kelly -- who heads the U.S. delegation in Beijing -- would be ready to talk to the North Koreans about a step-by-step process to defuse the crisis.

Desire to deal

North Korea praised its ally China for working to set up and host the talks.
North Korea praised its ally China for working to set up and host the talks.

In recent days Pyongyang has signaled a desire to deal, offering to freeze its nuclear activity in return for energy assistance.

But North Korea continues to reject the Bush administration's demands for the unilateral dismantling of its program.

Chinese state-run news Xinhua news agency said North Korea had pledged to work towards a "good result," and called the circumstances of the talks better than the other round.

"We appreciate the efforts done by the Chinese side. We will do our best to make a good result at the talks," North Korea's chief talks delegate Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan was quoted as saying to Wu Donghe, the Chinese ambassador to North Korea, by Xinhua.

Japanese officials quoted Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi as saying North Korea has expressed "readiness" to abolish its nuclear program, in comments carried in the Japanese media.

"He said North Korea had expressed to China its readiness to completely abandon its nuclear development, and said that the freeze was premised on that," Japanese Senior Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Ichiro Aisawa said in a broadcast on the NHK network.

Since the previous round of talks a new twist has developed: Pakistan's revelation that rogue scientist Abdel-Qadeer Khan provided North Korea with technology and know-how to make a uranium-based bomb to complement the country's plutonium-based weapons program.

Libya progress

U.S. delegation leader, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, heads the U.S. delegation.
U.S. delegation leader, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, heads the U.S. delegation.

In recent weeks, progress has been made in connection with the scrapping of other notorious nuclear programs. For example, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has abandoned his nuclear weapons program, and Iran is talking to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Kim Jong Il's regime, however, has denied the existence of a uranium program, so getting the North to admit it is high on the U.S. agenda.

"I think the uranium enrichment program is the 800-pound gorilla in the negotiating room. You can't solve a problem if you deny that it exists or if you wish it away," Bolton said.

U.S. officials believe North Korea has at least one or two nuclear bombs made from plutonium but some experts doubt it has the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile. North Korea has claimed to have reprocessed 8,000 spent plutonium fuel rods at its main Yongbyon reactor -- enough to build up to six nuclear devices.

Galluci said the key issue is whether the North Koreans -- who he said have uranium-enrichment and plutonium-based programs -- will permit international inspections, transparency, and destruction and dismantlement of programs that exist, and whether other countries will put benefits on the table to spur concessions.

"The question (for North Korea) is not so much what they want, but what they are prepared to give up to get it."

Galluci doesn't believe the makeup of an American government in the coming year will matter much in the U.S. negotiating stance.

He expressed doubt that North Korea would get a better deal from a Democratic administration and he believes North Korea should "make the deal now if they could do it."

-- CNN Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Chinoy contributed to this report


Story Tools
Subscribe to Time for $1.99 cover
Top Stories
Iran poll to go to run-off
Top Stories
CNN/Money: Security alert issued for 40 million credit cards
 
 
 
 

International Edition
CNN TV CNN International Headline News Transcripts Advertise With Us About Us
SEARCH
   The Web    CNN.com     
Powered by
© 2005 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us.
external link
All external sites will open in a new browser.
CNN.com does not endorse external sites.
 Premium content icon Denotes premium content.
Add RSS headlines.