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Japan, S.Korea, US meet on N.Korea nuke issue
Senior officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan held talks on Friday aimed at arranging a fresh round of six-party negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear programmes as doubts grew about the outlook for discussions later this month. South Korea's foreign minister said on Friday it was hard to be optimistic that the talks, bringing together the United States, Russia, China and Japan as well as the two Koreas, could be held in September. Seoul had been aiming for a Sept. 22 start. Recent revelations of an unsanctioned South Korean uranium enrichment experiment could put the talks at risk, and the North may also see little incentive to budge before November's US presidential election and join in, analysts have said. US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly met with South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck and Mitoji Yabunaka, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. The three had informal talks on Thursday, after which Kelly, known for being tight-lipped, was "not in a cheerful or happy mood", a source told Reuters. On Friday, however, Kelly said he hoped the talks would take place by the end of the month. "We're very much interested in having the six-party talks by the end of September as consensus in June had determined, and we're talking today about how to do that," he told reporters after the meeting. Beijing, which has hosted past rounds of six-party talks, had been hopeful a fresh round could be held this month, but a Chinese government spokesman said on Tuesday that obstacles were hampering efforts to get the participants together. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that Seoul is working to try and hold the talks this month, but recent North Korean comments suggested no grounds for optimism. "On the question of whether there will be a round of six-party talks, it is becoming difficult to be optimistic," Ban told South Korea's CBS radio. Senior Chinese leader Li Changchun will lead a party delegation to North Korea from Friday as China tries to coax Pyongyang to the negotiating table. A North Korean envoy said on Wednesday, however, that the talks had been jeopardised by tough talking about Pyongyang by US President George W. Bush ahead of the election. "If they continue to keep up this hostile attack on us, I don't think there is any chance," North Korean ambassador to Britain Ri Yong Ho told Reuters. South Korean Revelations Prospects for the six-way talks could also be affected by revelations that South Korean scientists conducted an unsanctioned laser enrichment test involving uranium. North Korea has said the uranium experiment was a "dangerous movement" that could trigger a nuclear arms race. The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when US diplomats said Pyongyang admitted pursuing a covert uranium enrichment programme, in addition to a plutonium programme that was suspended as part of a 1994 accord. North Korea has since denied the existence of the uranium programme and unfrozen its plutonium programme. US officials say Pyongyang may have enough nuclear material for eight bombs. In informal discussions on Thursday, Kelly said it was good that South Korea had revealed that its experiments were conducted and urged Pyongyang to follow suit and disclose its own nuclear development programmes, Kyodo news agency said. It was agreed at the third round of the six-way talks in Beijing to meet again by the end of September, but no date has yet been set for the next round. Kelly heads for Beijing on Sunday. |
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