By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed Saturday to reopen six-party talks early next month to finalize the verification of North Korea's declaration of its nuclear activities and materials made earlier this year, officials said.
The agreement was made at a tripartite meeting of President Lee Myung-bak, U.S. President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru.
``They have it worked out and China will announce (the date). There is a sense that this meeting will happen,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was quoted as saying after the three-way summit. ``We don't have a date to announce yet but there is an agreement to have a meeting and so we're just working to make sure everyone's schedules work out before the Chinese announce anything as to the timing.''
The latest six-way talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia were held in July in Beijing. Follow-up talks have not convened since then amid disputes over how to verify the North's declaration and when Pyongyang was to be removed from a U.S. terrorism blacklist.
As part of its trademark brinkmanship tactics, Pyongyang stepped up efforts to rebuild the Yongbyon nuclear plant, promised to be disabled under a 2007 disarmament-for-aid pact. It also expelled United Nations inspectors from the Yongbyon site.
In October, Washington removed North Korea from the blacklist in an apparent move to revive the six-party process in the final months of the Bush administration.
The United States and North Korea also agreed to a verification protocol that would allow outside experts to conduct scientific procedures, including nuclear sampling and forensic activities at undeclared sites ``on a mutual consent basis,'' as well as at all declared nuclear facilities.
North Korea's foreign ministry said earlier this month, however, it would not allow U.S. nuclear experts to take nuclear samples in the country.
It remains to be seen whether North Korea will agree to reopen the six-party forum, Seoul officials said.
Following the three-way summit, Lee and Bush held talks to discuss issues of mutual concern, ranging from North Korea's nuclear issue to the global financial crisis and the ratification of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), signed last year but yet to be endorsed by both legislatures.
As for souring inter-Korean ties, Lee said he would wait patiently until North Korea changes its stance.
Lee expected U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's Democratic Party to address the KORUS FTA in a positive manner, saying the United States, as an ardent advocate of globalization and free trade, was likely to keep moving toward spurning trade protectionism.