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| Cho Tae-yong, left, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' special representative for Korean peninsula peace and security, and Glyn Davies, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, shake hands during a media briefing held after a bilateral meeting at the ministry in Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap |
By Chung Min-uck
Envoys from Seoul and Washington concerned with the North Korea nuclear issue reaffirmed Wednesday their countries' "denuclearization first" stance regarding the North. They urged the reclusive state to show sincerity in scrapping its nuclear programs via "action" in order to resume the long-suspended six-party talks.
"What we need is not just a change in attitude, but a change in direction, in fact, concrete steps from North Korea," Glyn Davies, the U.S. special representative on the North Korea nuclear program, told the media after holding talks with his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yong
The U.S. envoy was referring to the North's latest conciliatory gesture of proposing reunions of families separated by the Korean War.
"But so far, North Korea has been a no-show on nuclear issues," he added. "What we are looking for from North Korea is sincerity in its movement and actions."
Cho, while concurring with Davies' position, said "We will have to make sure North Korea's leader will change his strategic calculation and find that possessing nuclear weapons is not actually in his strategic interest."
"Our two countries will keep working on a number of initiatives and efforts so that we will be able to have the six-party talks back on solid ground," the Seoul envoy added.
The U.S. nuclear envoy is in the middle of a three-nation Northeast Asia trip with Seoul marking his second destination following an earlier stay in Beijing where he held talks with Wu Dawei, China's special representative for the six-party talks, and other Chinese officials.
Meanwhile, observers say the multilateral disarmament talks that involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, will have hard time being re-launched because of Beijing's unchanged attitude.
China reiterated its old stance Monday following talks between Davies and Wu that the six-nation talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear program should be resumed immediately without any preconditions.
"We urge all relevant parties to make efforts to resume the six-party talks at an early date," China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a media briefing.
North Korea holds the same position and as part of its recent gestures of rapprochement has recently expressed its wish to resume the six-party talks on numerous occasions.
This goes against Seoul and Washington's posture that Pyongyang must first demonstrate its seriousness about giving up its nuclear programs before the aid-for-disarmament talks begin.
"One thing we found again is that indeed our two countries are on the same page… there is absolutely no sliver of light between the two countries' positions," said Cho.
Davies is scheduled to depart for Japan today to wrap up his Asia trip.
