US envoy Bosworth rules out resumption of 6-party talks

By Na Jeong-ju

Top nuclear envoys from South Korea, the United States, Japan and China stepped up efforts Tuesday to seek a coordinated response to North Korea’s latest revelation that it was running a uranium enrichment plant and building a new light-water atomic reactor.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Wi Sung-lac expressed Seoul’s grave concern over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions when he met with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei in Beijing on Monday.

“They shared opinions on how to deal with North Korea,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

“Seoul and Beijing reached a consensus that there are certain conditions to be met to resume the stalled six-way denuclearization talks and agreed to continue diplomatic efforts to restart the negotiations.”

U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth met in Tokyo with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara during the second stop of an Asian tour that also included South Korea. He flew later Tuesday to China.

Bosworth said the six-nation talks won’t resume while Pyongyang works on a new uranium facility.

“Needless to say, we regard this development with great seriousness,” he told reporters. “We do not contemplate resuming negotiations while active programs are under way or while there is a possibility that North Koreans will test another nuclear device or test a missile.”

The multilateral talks, stalled since late 2008, include the two Koreas, China, the U.S., Japan and Russia. North Korea has called for an early resumption, while South Korea and the U.S. maintain that Pyongyang must first apologize for the sinking of a South Korean warship last March and show sincerity on denuclearization.

Washington made it clear on Monday that it would not reward North Korea for its bad behavior, saying it must take steps toward denuclearization.

“We will not be drawn into rewarding North Korea for bad behavior,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. “They frequently anticipate doing something outrageous or provocative, and forcing us to jump through hoops as a result. We’re not going to buy into this cycle.”

The spokesman dismissed the nuclear revelation as the North’s traditional brinkmanship, saying “This obviously is an issue of concern, not a crisis.”

A senior South Korean official said the previous liberal governments of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun were aware of North Korea’s secret program to develop highly-enriched uranium, but concealed it for political reasons.

“We believe that they already knew about Pyongyang’s nuclear program in late 1990s, but failed to disclose it,” said Chung Jin-suk, a senior presidential secretary for political affairs.

“For the time, some government officials even contended that the nuclear program was fabricated by neo-cons of the Bush administration who were seeking a hostile policy toward the North. They must step forward and apologize for that.”