Trilateral talks due over NK nukes

By Kim Young-jin

Nuclear envoys from South Korea, Japan and the United States will hold trilateral talks in Tokyo next week to consult over North Korea, officials said Thursday, despite a diplomatic spat between the two Asian neighbors.

Lim Sung-nam, envoy to the six-party negotiations over the North's nuclear weapons program, will meet with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Glyn Davies and Shinsuke Sugiyama, next Wednesday, the official said on customary condition of anonymity.

The meeting will "jointly assess the current situation with the North Korean nuclear issues and discuss ways to maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula," the official said.

Despite being stalled since 2009, the members of the six-party talks that also include the North, China and Russia, have consulted intermittently amid international concern over Pyongyang’s program. But the regime scuttled any hope of immediate resumption in April with a failed long-range rocket launch.

In the face of the North’s growing program and provocative behavior, Washington has sought to increase trilateral cooperation. But the effort has hit a snag because Seoul-Tokyo tensions have soared following President Lee Myung-bak’s surprise trip to the Dokdo Islets prompted Japan to ratchet up its claim over the rocks.

Seoul dismisses the notion that there is a territorial dispute over Dokdo, saying the islets are part of its jurisdiction on historical and legal grounds.

Meanwhile, the North’s nuclear program has continued apace. According to recent satellite imagery, progress has been made on a light-water reactor at the North’s main Yongbyon plant, with a dome now in place over the facility.

Pyongyang insists that the reactor is for civilian purposes. But analysts warn its completion could allow the North to claim it is operating its uranium enrichment program (UEP) to fuel the reactor while secretly producing uranium for nuclear weapons.

Analysts say the North is unlikely to relinquish the nuclear program as new leader Kim Jong-un strengthens his grip on power. Still the multilateral talks are seen as a way to manage the growth of the program and foster dialogue.

The North, under heavy pressure from main ally China, may be willing to rejoin the talks, but watchers say resumption is unlikely until after elections in Seoul and Washington.

The UEP has emerged as a key issue in discussions to resume the stalled talks. Seoul and Washington want the North to halt the program and allow international inspectors to verify the move before the talks are resumed.

The Stalinist state is believed to have stockpiled enough plutonium from a gas graphite reactor at Yongbyon to build several atomic bombs.