Minister Positive on Denuclearization
By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
Song Min-soon, minister of foreign affairs and trade, said he expects the upcoming six-party talks slated for mid-September in Beijing will bring a second-phase roadmap for denuclearization of North Korea.
``I hope the next six-party talks will bring a second-phase detailed plan for denuclearization,''Song said Wednesday evening in an interview with Yonhap News in Sydney where he is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
He said the agreement reached in September, 2005 at the six-party talks was a draft and the agreement in February, 2007 was a first-stage part of the process.
The September agreement is a basic framework of ongoing negotiations to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions in return for political and economic benefits from other countries involved in the talks.
They promised to give 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to North Korea in exchange for the shutdown of nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and another 950,000 tons or its equivalent for the declaration of all nuclear programs and the disablement of them.
The two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan are all involved in the nuclear talks, aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Song meant the negotiators at the talks would try to agree to a concrete plan for second-phase measures for the North's nuclear declaration and disablement.
Song's remarks added hope to the coming six-party talks given the United States and North Korea also had a positive meeting last weekend in Geneva on the removal of North Korea from a U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism on the condition it implements nuclear disablement by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Song said the issue of North Korea's kidnapping of Japanese people in the past would not be a critical stumbling block to the removal. Japan has said that it will not offer any incentives to North Korea until the Stalinist country resolves this issue.
Song also met his U.S. counterpart Condoleezza Rice Thursday and discussed North Korean issues among others. They reconfirmed their common position on North Korea's denuclearization.
President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush will have a summit Friday to discuss the second inter-Korean summit on Oct. 2-4 in Pyongyang as well as other issues involving bilateral relations.
Bush expressed interest in Roh's planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il when he arrived in Sydney Tuesday to attend the annual APEC forum summit.
Roh is in Sydney for the 15th annual APEC forum summit, along with heads of state from 20 other APEC member nations, including the U.S., Japan, China and Russia.