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Pyongyang reportedly demands ‘excessive’ aid for initial steps
February 13, 2007
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| BEIJING ― The North Korea nuclear talks here will probably be extended by at least one day, a South Korean government official said yesterday evening. The talks appeared to be heading for another inconclusive ending yesterday because of what some negotiators called Pyongyang’s excessive demands for compensation in return for initial steps in implementing a tentative accord reached in September 2005. It was clear from comments by officials of the five governments facing Pyongyang at the negotiating table that they had reached the limit of what they collectively were prepared to offer for those first steps by North Korea. “It’s up to the North Koreans,” said Christopher Hill, the U.S. representative to the talks. “I think we’ve put everything on the table. They just need to make a decision. I don’t think there’s any need to do any more bargaining. I don’t want to predict this is the last chance or something, but I think at this moment we have to see whether the DPRK is interested in this opportunity or not.” A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said yesterday that there were still differences between the North and the rest of the participants. Even Chun Young-woo, Seoul’s negotiator at the nuclear talks, seemed to have dropped his government’s determined optimism about the talks earlier. He told the press that despite the clear weather in Beijing, the future road of the six-party talks was not visible. “Whether today will be the last day of negotiations depends on what sort of position the North has today,” he said gloomily. Other sources said yesterday that Pyongyang has been asked to lower its demands for heavy fuel oil, reportedly between 500,000 and 1 million tons per year only for taking first steps; the other delegations also want the North Koreans to “disable” the Yongbyon nuclear reactor rather than freeze its operations, a step Pyongyang has refused to consider. Despite a string of bilateral meetings between Washington and Pyongyang in Berlin, Germany, in preparation for the current round of talks, early optimism about a quick settlement by most delegations, including Pyongyang’s, have not been borne out. The aim of this round of talks was to put the details into the framework agreement reached in September 2005 that outlined a comprehensive exchange of aid, recognition and security assurances in return for North Korea’s dismantling of its nuclear programs. The Chosun Shinbo, a pro-Pyongyang news group in Japan, reported over the weekend that in the bilateral U.S.-North Korea talks in Berlin last month, Washington agreed not only to energy aid but to lift financial sanctions imposed on North Korean accounts at a Macao bank within 30 days of an agreement. The two governments had also agreed, the media outlet said, to start work quickly on efforts to normalize diplomatic relations between Washington and Pyongyang. By Lee Sang-eon(JoongAng Ilbo)/ Brian Lee(Staff Writer) africanu@joongang.co.kr |
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