Kim Young-jin
Staff Reporter
The international efforts to revive the six-party talks on North Korea's denuclearization face a stumbling block amid indications that the communist state was involved in last month's sinking of the South Korean Navy's frigate Cheonan near the western sea border with the North.
The United States has said a thorough investigation of the disaster should come before further efforts to resume the talks, which have been stalled since early last year, when the North walked away in response to the sanctions imposed by the U.N. for its second nuclear test.
The South Korean military's announcement Friday that an external blast is the likely cause of the sinking ― which indicates a North Korean attack ― is likely to cast a dark shadow over the relations between Pyongyang and Washington.
The U.S. State Department said Thursday that North Korean involvement in the incident would undermine efforts to resume the multilateral talks.
"We are looking to see what North Korea is prepared to do (to return to the talks), but obviously North Korea's behavior in the region has an impact in terms of creating the atmosphere for the six-party process to move forward," spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington, D.C.
The United States is part of the multinational effort to examine the wreckage and determine the cause of the incident, which Cheong Wa Dae has said will ensure a "transparent and objective" investigation.
"Obviously, we are cooperating with South Korea in terms of the investigation of the tragic sinking of that ship," Crowley said. "Everyone wants to know what happened."
The spokesman said that while Washington will continue to work closely with the other parties of the talks ― South Korea, Japan, China and Russia ― resumption of the talks is ultimately up to the North.
"We would begin six-party talks in concert with our partners, but the first step is what North Korea has to do," he said.
On Wednesday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters that the two allies are on the same page in case it is determined North Korea was indeed behind the sinking of the Cheonan.
"We want to be very clear that there is a complete agreement between South Korea and the United States about next steps, if there are to be next steps given recent developments," he said.
The murky outlook for the talks stands in stark contrast to the optimism early this month that they would resume after a highly-speculated visit by Kim Jong-il to China. The trip has yet to materialize.
Meanwhile, Kim Tae-hyo, Seoul's deputy national security adviser, met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg in Washington earlier Thursday to discuss the six-party talks, the Cheonan situation and other issues, the State Department officials said, without providing further details.