By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Amid conciliatory gestures and remarks, Pyongyang could possibly express its willingness on the international stage to return to multi-lateral talks about dismantling its nuclear programs, a leading North Korea watcher said Sunday.
North Korea dispatched a delegation led by Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon to New York, Friday, to take part in the 64th session of the U.N. General Assembly.
``I think the delegates may say that Pyongyang is willing to have bilateral talks with Washington and rejoin the six-party denuclearization talks if the United States stops its hostile policies toward North Korea,'' Prof. Yang Moo-jin at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies told The Korea Times.
He continued, ``There is a possibility that the delegation would clarify North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's recent positive remarks toward talks with other countries.''
Even though Seoul welcomes Pyongyang's decision to join bilateral and multilateral talks, there is the growing question of whether the North is serious about scrapping its nuclear programs, Seoul analysts said.
According to reports, Kim told Dai Bingguo, a senior Chinese diplomat and presidential envoy that his country was willing to resolve the denuclearization issue through ``bilateral and multilateral talks.''
Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, positively interpreted Kim's comments.
``The United States is prepared, working very closely with Japan, South Korea and China, to see whether indeed North Korea is prepared to come back responsibly to sit down in the six-party framework and again work toward what we are all seeking to achieve ― a verifiable non-nuclear Korean Peninsula,'' he said before returning home from a visit to Japan.
But Professor Yang said that there wouldn't be any dramatic shift in North Korea's stance.
``North Korea will, in my judgment, reiterate its principles of action-for-action and dialogue-for-dialogue,'' the professor said.
Meanwhile, South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Wi Sung-lac left for the United States Sunday to discuss the North Korea nuclear issue with U.S. senior officials, including Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg.
``There has been progress regarding the nuclear issue, so we will have further consultations,'' he said. ``It has yet to be determined when to hold bilateral talks between North Korea and the United States but we will exchange opinions on that in advance.''
Expectations of North Korea rejoining the six-way talks are increasing after former President Bill Clinton made a surprise visit there and had a rare meeting with Kim in early August.
He successfully won the release of two U.S. journalists who were being detained for illegal trespassing.
The reclusive state also made conciliatory gestures toward South Korea by freeing a worker in the Gaeseong industrial complex and a South Korean fishing boat with four crewmembers on board.
It also agreed to hold reunions of displaced families between Sept. 26 and Oct. 1.