Sunday, May 15, 2005
Sunday, May 15, 2005 |
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P. S. Suryanarayana
SINGAPORE: Raising hopes of some forward movement over the issue of North Korea's nuclear-weapons programme, South Korea announced on Saturday that the stalled bilateral talks with Pyongyang would be resumed on Monday. The inter-Korean dialogue has remained suspended for nearly 10 months over the "defection" of several hundred North Koreans to the South from Vietnam through China. The bilateral parleys, first decided upon during the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, do not actually constitute an agreed framework for discussions on Pyongyang's nuclear-weapons programme. However, South Korea has, while responding now to the sudden "overture" from the North for the resumption of the bilateral talks, indicated that the nuclear issue, too, would now be placed on the agenda. Speaking to reporters in Seoul on Saturday, the South Korean Vice-Minister for Unification, Rhee Bong-jo, said: "We will urge the North to rejoin the six-party talks as soon as possible. ... . We are conveying the concerns of the international community over the North Korean nuclear issue".
Nuclear move
Seoul's new move comes in the context of continuing speculation that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) might be preparing itself for carrying out an underground testing of a nuclear weapon. While this speculation is based on U.S. "intelligence" as gathered through remote-sensing satellite imagery from outer space, Pyongyang's latest initiative for the resumption of the inter-Korean dialogue at this moment has given the South an opportunity to try and enlarge the scope of these bilateral talks, according to regional diplomats. Pyongyang's new initiative was communicated to the South Korean Unification Minister, Chung Dong-young, by his DPRK counterpart, Kwon Ho-ung. While inter-Korean family reunions and Seoul's supply of fertilizer to the DPRK would figure in the fresh talks, Mr. Rhee indicated that a significant issue would be the "ways to get back on track the stalled inter-Korean relations" and the South's "position on the North Korean nuclear issue".
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