6-way denuclearization talks enter new phase

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Staff reporter

Following the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) releasing a presidential statement condemning the attack on the warship Cheonan, governments are trying to switch tack and are calling for the resumption of the six-party talks.

Political analysts said Monday that the circumstances surrounding the multilateral talks have become much more complex than when the talks were last held in September 2007, making it challenging to reach a consensus.

In the wake of the UNSC statement, China and North Korea became the two active nations to try to resume the six-party talks.

"We hope the involved parties continue to maintain calmness and restraint and take this opportunity to turn the page on the Cheonan incident as soon as possible," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Quin Gang Friday.

He called for the early resumption of six-party talks to end North Korea's nuclear programs.

The official Chinese reaction on the need to resume dialogue came shortly after the UNSC issued the presidential statement over the Cheonan incident.

A day later, North Korea joined the campaign to resume the talks.

North Korea's foreign ministry said Pyongyang will make consistent efforts for denuclearization and a peace agreement through the six-party talks.

Seoul demanded that Pyongyang prove its true willingness to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

But South Korea's foreign ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun has made it clear that sincere efforts by the North are a precondition for the resumption of the talks.

Kim said South Korea will work closely with other nations participating in the denuclearization talks.

There has been major change in North Korea over the past three years after the last talks were held in September 2007.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had a stroke last year and his declining health is facilitating a power transition to his third son Jong-un.

Earlier, the reclusive state announced that it aimed to be a powerful state by 2012 when North Korea watchers say the nation plans to complete its nuclear program. Analysts say the power transition will also be finished around that time.

The ongoing power transition and the timetable for a nuclear state will likely make the six-party talks a useful tool in ending the nuclear program.

A high-ranking South Korean official told The Korea Times that a deep perception gap over the goal of the six-party talks between North Korea and the other nations made it more challenging for negotiators to reach an agreement in the previous negotiations.

"Five nations, excepting North Korea, shared the view that denuclearization was the prime goal of the six-party talks, whereas the North regarded the talks as a tool to make the five others accept it as a nuclear state," he said on condition of anonymity.

He said Pyongyang insisted that if other nations accept it as a nuclear state, the North would not produce any more nuclear bombs.

"China tried to play a role in reducing the perception gap between North Korea and the other countries, but it has not gone well."

Cho Myung-cheol, a former professor of Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang, told The Korea Times that each nation tried to put their own agendas on the table, not focusing on nuclear issues.

"It is hard to focus on nuclear issues under the current scheme as the six nations speak in different languages at the talk. This rendered the six-party talks ineffective," he said.

"To get a fruitful result, all parties must be prepared to make bold concessions in return for what they wanted to achieve. But none of them appears to be ready for that," he said.