International   

Decks cleared for U.S., North Korea meeting

P. S. Suryanarayana

Tokyo reiterates condition for energy aid to Pyongyang

SINGAPORE: In a flurry of diplomatic activity to carry forward the six-party process, the United States and Japan have set dates and venues for their respective meetings, on parallel tracks, with North Korea. The six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear arms issue involve China as the Chair, the U.S., the two Koreas, Japan, and Russia.

The U.S. will play host to North Korea for their talks in New York on March 5 and 6. This bilateral working group, being set up under the six-party accord of February 13, is mandated to sort out the issues holding up the normalisation of U.S.-North Korea relations. The U.S. State Department emphasised that no breakthroughs were expected at the first meeting. And, Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said there was no departure from the stand that any continuation of the North Korean "counterfeiting" of American currency would be "unacceptable." Washington was not lowering vigil on this score.

Japan's meeting with North Korea will take place in Hanoi, as a neutral venue, on March 7 and 8. For Tokyo, a key issue would be the unexplained mysteries relating to the abduction of a number of Japanese nationals by North Korea during the Cold War period. Pyongyang wants to turn the focus on issues relating to Japan's past colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday reaffirmed that he would extend energy aid to North Korea, under the six-party accord, only if Pyongyang were to make "concrete progress" in resolving the abduction issues. This was indicated in Tokyo by Japan's chief negotiator Koichi Haraguchi. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said "simple promises" by North Korea to continue investigations "will not be seen as progress."

The ministerial talks between the two Koreas continued in Pyongyang on a political track not specifically mandated under the six-party process. A key issue is whether Seoul should resume its food and fertilizer aid to Pyongyang even if there be no progress towards the de-nuclearisation of North Korea.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Allawi's party threatens to quit Iraqi regime
Eighteen dead in Sri Lanka air raids
Osama is alive, says senior Taliban leader
Decks cleared for U.S., North Korea meeting
Zimbabwe broke and hungry, says top official
Historian dead
Row over "Jihad"
Prodi survives vote
Afghanistan on road to revival

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu