Six-Party Talks Not in Stalemate
By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
The top U.S. nuclear envoy said Wednesday that the six-party talks, aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambition, are not in a stalemate at the moment but just on a rough road as his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan thinks.
Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs who met Kim in Beijing Tuesday, said, ``He (Kim) wanted to make it clear that he and his government are prepared to try to make progress to get through this.''
``We discussed the current difficulties of getting through the second phase (of declaration of nuclear weapons program),'' Hill told reporters in Seoul. ``Kim was very careful not to describe this as any kind of stalemate.''
They mainly talked about the ``complete and correct'' declaration that North Korea should have made by the end of 2007 in return for economic aid and political concessions.
Hill said his North Korean counterpart fully understood the problem with the delayed declaration and promised to be in touch with him in the near future.
Meanwhile, Kim tried to ease suspicions about a secret nuclear weapons program and once again denied giving nuclear technology with other countries, which are a bone of contention with the United States, according to Hill.
Washington claimed North Korea purchased some equipment to use in the uranium enrichment program (UEP), but Pyongyang retorted that it does not have any UEP.
``They (North Koreans) continue to take what they call a principled position that they have not engaged in any uranium enrichment activity, nor have they been,'' Hill continued. ``We cannot pretend that activities don't exist when we know that the activities have existed.''
North Korea was to receive 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oils or the equivalent if it completes disablement of nuclear facilities and the declaration of the nuclear program by 2007 under the six-party talks' agreement. In addition, the United States promised to remove North Korea from the list of terror-sponsoring countries.
However, amid the UEP suspicion, North Korea hasn't submitted a list of nuclear programs yet.
Hill had a breakfast meeting with his South Korean counterpart Chun Yung-woo and met Yu Myung-hwan, nominee for foreign minister. He left for Tokyo later in the day on the third and last leg of his Asian tour.
Hill will be back in Seoul this weekend when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attends the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Lee Myung-bak on Monday.