Korea, US, Japan will meet on 6-party talks

By Yi Whan-woo

South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold a three-way dialogue on resuming the long-stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

Kim Gunn, the ministry’s director general for North Korean nuclear affairs, will join his counterparts — Shigeki Takizaki and Sydney Seiler — in Tokyo, Friday.

Takizaki is Japan’s deputy director general for Asian and Oceanic Affairs.

Seiler is the U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks that are aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear program. He is on a three-day visit to Seoul until today as part of his trip to three East Asian countries, including China and Japan, from July 25 to Aug. 1.

The trilateral dialogue will take place as Seoul and Washington have been stepping up efforts to revitalize talks among the members of the six parties following the U.S.-led deal over Iran’s nuclear program on July 14.

Both South Korea and the U.S. anticipate China, North Korea’s closest ally, will exercise leverage on the Kim Jong-un regime to resume the six-party talks that have been suspended since 2008, according to diplomatic sources.

“Now is the perfect time to bring North Korea to the negotiation table, given that all eyes are on Pyongyang to see whether it will follow in Iran’s footsteps,” a source said.

Seiler said the historic accord between Iran and the six world powers shows Washington’s willingness to negotiate with Pyongyang.

The six powers are the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia — plus Germany.

“Iran’s deal demonstrates the value and possibilities negotiations bring,” Seiler told reporters after meeting Kim and Hwang Joon-gook, South Korea’s top envoy to the six-party talks.

“It demonstrates again our willingness when we have a willing counterpart. And it demonstrates our flexibility when the DPRK makes a decision and it wants to choose a different path,” he said. DPRK is an acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The U.S. envoy will depart for Beijing today to meet senior government officials. They include his counterpart, Deputy Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Xiao Qian.

From there, Seiler will travel to Tokyo Thursday before returning home Saturday. He will have a bilateral meeting with Takizaki before Kim joins them.

Seiler’s East Asia tour follows Hwang’s visit to China from July 15 to 24 where he met Wu Da Wei, Beijing’s top nuclear envoy, and other experts on security issues on the Korean Peninsula.

According to Hwang, several Chinese officials share the view that Iran’s nuclear deal will serve as a catalyst to press North Korea back to the negotiation table.

The July14 agreement in Vienna, Austria will prevent Iran from enriching uranium and developing nuclear weapons in return for lifting U.S.-led economic sanctions.

The deal will make North Korea in the long term as the only U.N. member state that will be under sanctions for continuing to pursue its nuclear ambitions.

Pyongyang carried out nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2012. It has also claimed it has developed nuclear warheads that are small enough to be mounted on ballistic missiles.