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Korean nuclear talks adjourned

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: Sharp differences between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday led to a three-week adjournment of the fourth round of the six-party talks in Beijing on the North Korean nuclear-weapons programme.

Announcing the recess, Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who hosted the meeting, maintained that "consensus" had been reached, however, on the basic principle of "peaceful de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula". The fourth round, which began on July 26 after a gap of nearly 13 months, will be resumed on or after August 29. The six parties are the U.S., the DPRK, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

Pyongyang hopeful

DPRK negotiator Kim Kye-gwan later expressed the hope that the U.S. would utilise the recess to consider a "shift" in its current position of insisting that Pyongyang "give up the right to peaceful nuclear activities" besides agreeing to dismantle its atomic weapons programme.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who participated in the talks, said Washington favoured the complete stoppage of all atomic programmes of the DPRK, because, in his view, Pyongyang had indeed "turned" its nuclear-energy research reactors into "bomb-making reactors".

The U.S. was also not agreeable, at this stage, to any proposal of reviving the stalled construction of light-water nuclear-energy reactors by an international consortium for use by the DPRK to meet its electricity needs.

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