US: DPRK's offer on nuclear talks not enough

Updated: 2011-08-25 09:42

(Xinhua)

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WASHINGTON - The US State Department said on Wednesday that the offer by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to suspend its nuclear program at some point if the Six-Party Talks resumed is a "welcome first step, but far from enough."

"I think you hit it on the head when you said 'familiar offer,' " State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters at a regular briefing.

"Obviously, if, in fact, they are now willing to refrain from nuclear tests and missile launches, this would be welcome, but it would be insufficient," she said.

During a visit to Moscow on Wednesday, DPRK leader Kim Jong-il told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that the DPRK was ready to impose a moratorium on testing and production of missile and nuclear weaponry only in the course of the Six-Party Talks.

Nuland said DPRK's disclosure last November of uranium enrichment facilities "remains a matter of serious concern" to the US, describing these activities as "a clear violation of their obligations under UN Security Resolutions 1718 and 1874, and contrary to the commitments that they made in 2005."

US envoy for DPRK policy Stephen Bosworth and DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan met in late July in New York over a possible resumption of the long-stalled Six-Party Talks on the Korean Peninsular denuclearization. A DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman said early this month that his country is ready to hold the talks without preconditions.

The Six-Party Talks, involving China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan, began in 2003. Six rounds were held before the talks stalled in December 2008.

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