North Korean minister to visit US for nuclear talks

Hopes raised for reviving negotiations to end Pyongyang’s nuclear programme after Kim Kye Gwan invited to New York A senior North Korean official is to visit the US this week to discuss the possible resumption of international negotiations on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear programmes, secretary of state Hillary Clinton said. Diplomats could be close to reviving six-nation disarmament talks, which broke off in 2008. The talks come after more than a year of tension between North and South Korea. Two attacks last year that Seoul blamed on Pyongyang killed 50 South Koreans and led to threats of war. Clinton’s invitation to the North Korean vice foreign minister, Kim Kye Gwan, to visit New York follows a meeting on Friday between nuclear negotiators from North and South Korea on the sidelines of a regional forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Bali. It was the first such meeting since disarmament talks collapsed in 2008, and the envoys agreed to work toward the resumption of six-nation negotiations. The recent diplomacy comes after more than a year of unity between Washington and Seoul since international investigators said a North Korean torpedo sank a South Korean warship in March last year killing 46 sailors. The South demanded the North show regret for the warship sinking, and for an artillery attack on a frontline South Korean island that killed four in November last year. North Korea denies a role in the sinking and says South Korea provoked the island shelling. While refusing to apologise, however, Pyongyang has repeatedly shown a willingness to return to disarmament talks. The North is believed to be seeking a diplomatic breakthrough and outside food aid before the 2012 centennial of the birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung. “We are open to talks with North Korea, but we do not intend to reward the North just for returning to the table,” Clinton said in a statement announcing Kim Kye Gwan’s trip to the US. “We will not give them anything new for actions they have already agreed to take. And we have no appetite for pursuing protracted negotiations that will only lead us right back to where we have already been.” The wariness is in line with past US statements that its ally Seoul must be satisfied with the North’s sincerity before Washington will act. During Kim’s trip he will meet a team of US officials to explore his country’s commitment to returning to the international talks and taking concrete steps toward disarmament, Clinton said in the statement. The announcement follows a meeting between Clinton and the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan in Bali. The nuclear negotiations involve the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia. The North Korean foreign minister, Pak Ui-chun, said the Korean peninsula now stands “on the crossroads of detente and the vicious cycle of escalating tension”. The countries involved, Pak said, must “make the best use of [the] opportunity of dialogue and make a bold decision to settle the fundamental issue”. Diplomats have been eager for the two rivals to ease tensions. Since the last round of talks, North Korea has conducted a second nuclear test and revealed a uranium enrichment facility that could give it another way to make atomic bombs. Recent North Korean threats against Seoul’s conservative government include a pledge to retaliate over South Korean soldiers’ use of pictures of the ruling North Korean family for target practice. The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. The United States has 28,500 troops in the South. That presence is cited by the North as a main factor in its need to build a nuclear program. North Korea Nuclear weapons South Korea Hillary Clinton United States guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 25, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.