N Korea calls for talks

2003-07-21 20:27

Seoul - North Korea urged the United States on Monday to step up to the table for talks to defuse the prolonged nuclear weapons crisis, sounding a positive note by not ruling out multilateral negotiations.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the crisis could be settled through negotiations based on the principles of "fairness, equality and trust" if both North Korea and the United States took "simultaneous action" to begin talks.

North Korea's latest demand comes amid growing signs that the hermit state may respond to calls for multilateral talks to end the nine-month-old nuclear stand-off which began in October last year.

The United States has insisted on a multilateral format for the talks while North Korea has said the nuclear crisis can only be resolved through one-on-one talks with Washington.

North Korea said it was ready to dispel US concerns about its nuclear program if Washington dropped its hostile policy towards Pyongyang.

"As the increasing nuclear threat and war provocation moves of the US compelled the DPRK (North Korea) to reinforce its self-defensive nuclear deterrent, the DPRK-US nuclear issue must in any case be settled through simultaneous actions," it said.

"If the United States truly wants a peaceful solution of the DPRK-US nuclear issue, it should respond to the DPRK-proposed negotiations based on equality and confidence," the KCNA said.

North Korea's latest verbal salvo come as diplomats in South Korea and China are sounding increasingly optimistic that talks to resolve the nuclear crisis will begin soon.

On Monday South Korean Presidential Security Advisor Ra Jong-Yil predicted nuclear talks could take place "at an early date".

"I believe they are in the final stage of fine-tuning the dialogue format," he said.

Ra said Pyongyang's concerns about its security must be addressed under any format.

He said the North appeared to be softening its stance on demands for a written security guarantee from the United States.

Meanwhile, officials in Seoul and Beijing, including Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing, debunked reports that a definite date had been set for the talks to start.

The English-language Korea Times newspaper reported in Seoul that an announcement would be made this week on multilateral talks to be held on September 6 in Beijing.

Seoul's Yonhap news agency forecast that talks between the United States, North Korea and China would likely resume sometime early next month. A first round of three-party talks was held in Beijing in April.

The Chinese foreign minister also sounded a positive note.

"What I think is rather hopeful and especially important is maintaining the process of the Beijing talks," Li said.

US officials said last week that Chinese, US and North Korean delegates would meet for negotiations in a format that could be expanded to include Japan and South Korea.

The diplomatic progress comes amid new anxieties over North Korea's recent claim to have reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods and reports that the North may have built a second, secret plant for producing weapon-grade plutonium.

The New York Times said on Sunday that sensors set up on North Korea's borders have begun detecting elevated levels of krypton 85, a gas emitted as spent fuel is converted into plutonium.

It said computer analyses that track the gases as they are blown across the Korean peninsula appeared to rule out the Yongbyon reprocessing plant as their origin.

South Korean officials played down the report.

"There is no conclusive information about such facilities," Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck told a domestic radio program.

- AFX