By Kim Young-jin
North Korea has said it is open to discussing its uranium enrichment program if the stalled six-party denuclearization talks resume, Pyongyang’s state-run media said Tuesday.
The remarks came during a meeting between North Korean officials and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin in Pyongyang, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
“North Korea is willing to resume the six-party talks without any preconditions and is not opposed to discussing its uranium enrichment program,” the KCNA quoted an official as saying.
Consultations among regional players over how to resume the forum, which last met in 2008, picked up pace after the North shelled Yeonpyeong Island last November, sharply raising tension on the peninsula.
The shelling followed on the heels of North Korea’s disclosure of a sprawling uranium enrichment facility that experts fear could be converted to produce nuclear weapons.
China, the North’s closest ally, has called for a prompt resumption of the talks without any preconditions.
But Seoul and Washington have indicated they will seek a presidential statement at the U.N. condemning the program before any resumption of the talks.
The report said that Borodavkin urged the North to take “constructive measures” such as a moratorium on its nuclear and missile tests and a display of willingness to discuss the uranium enrichment program at the six-party talks.
Seoul and Washington also want apologies for the Yeonpyeong shelling and the sinking of the warship Cheonan last March. The attacks killed a total of 50 South Koreans.
Efforts to revive the forum lost momentum when military talks between the Koreas, seen as a barometer of the North’s willingness to engage, broke down over its refusal to apologize for the acts.
The denuclearization-for-aid talks, which includes both Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and China, stalled in 2009 when Pyongyang walked away over U.N. sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests.
The North has actively called for humanitarian assistance this year after a brutal winter and devastating floods last summer. Some watchers say that it could be seeking aid ahead of 2012, the year it has pledged to become a powerful country.
Borodavkin left the North on Monday after a four-day visit, the report said.