US, China, N Korea to meet

2003-04-16 09:12

Washington - High-ranking diplomats from the United States, China and North Korea are to meet next week in Beijing for talks on a simmering nuclear crisis, a senior US official and diplomatic sources said late on Tuesday.

The meeting - which will be the first direct high-level talks between Washington and Pyongyang since the crisis erupted in October - appears to be a compromise between the US demand for multilateral discussions on the crisis and North Korea's insistence on a one-on-one dialogue with the United States.

"We have succeeded in our efforts to establish a multilateral framework," the US official said on condition of anonymity.

However, the talks will be notable for the absence of the two closest US partners in dealing with North Korea, Japan and South Korea, the sources said, confirming a report published late on Tuesday on the New York Times website.

The sources said that Pyongyang, which has alarmed North Asia with its drive for nuclear weapons, has insisted that the three-way format was the only option it would accept.

"This is an initial beginning of dialogue, we wanted them (the Japanese and South Koreans) there but the North Koreans were insistent that it only be the three," the senior US official said.

The official said that an agreement on the three-way meeting had been brokered by China in a "counter-proposal" to US suggestions for a larger group of participants presented to North Korea.

In the proposal, Beijing also agreed to take an active role in the talks, the sources said, adding that this had appealed to the Pyongyang which has long relied on China as its closest ally.

US acceptance of the North Korean requirement seemed to signal a major concession but Secretary of State Colin Powell said earlier Tuesday that "ultimately" the concerns of all North Korea's neighbors would be addressed.

"The one thing that is absolutely clear is that, at whatever level it starts and with whatever attendance it has to ultimately encompass the views and thoughts of all the neighbors in the region," Powell told reporters.

In addition, the sources confirmed the Times report that said Washington "reserved the right" to add other participants to the talks as they continued, including Russia.

The sources also said US officials had assured both Seoul and Tokyo that they would be consulted on a daily basis.

The US state department and the South Korean foreign ministry declined to comment on the planned talks. North Korean diplomats in Beijing said they had not heard of any such meeting and the Chinese foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment.

The exact dates for the Beijing discussions were not immmediately clear, but in an ironic twist, the US delegation will be led by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific James Kelly, the sources said.

Kelly's visit to Pyongyang last October precipitated the crisis, when he accused North Korea of pursuing a nuclear program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 anti-nuclear deal.

Since then, Pyongyang has ratcheted up tension, expelling international nuclear inspectors, testing missiles and announcing its withdrawal on January 10 from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Next week's talks will be the culmination of weeks of secret diplomacy, conducted through North Koreans diplomats at the United Nations and US contacts with powers including China, Russia, Australia and South Korea.

Those efforts, particularly those by the Chinese, paid off over the weekend when North Korea said it was willing to drop its insistance on bilateral talks with the United States under the right conditions, the sources said.

The planned meeting will also highlight the growing cooperation between China and the United States which have seen their interests coincide after a rocky start to relations when President George W Bush took office in 2001.

North Korea asserts that its very existence is threatened by US plans to launch nuclear war against the isolated and impoverished country, branded Bush part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq.

- AFX