Six-nation talks on Washington's demand for North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions ended yesterday without a breakthrough but with envoys promising to discuss the "first steps for denuclearization" of the North before meeting again by the end of September.
The US, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia agreed to hold low-level discussions as soon as possible to define the North's initial moves toward disarmament, how they would be monitored and what kind of aid it could expect in return.
During the four-day talks in Beijing, North Korea said it would give up its nuclear program in exchange for fuel aid, an end to US economic sanctions and removal from the American list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
"We plan to not only freeze these facilities but also to dismantle them when [appropriate] conditions are created," the North said in a statement read to reporters outside its embassy.
The negotiators may still be far apart on how much the North must do to become eligible for the fuel aid and other benefits it is seeking, including security guarantees from Washington.
The talks' host, China, canceled a closing ceremony for the meeting, and delegates issued a "chairman's statement" rather than a joint statement -- signals that talks may have ended in discord.
"There is still a serious lack of mutual trust among the parties," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi (
The two-page chairman's statement said "The parties agreed in principle to hold the fourth round of the six-party talks in Beijing by the end of September, 2004."
It said lower-level discussions would be held "at the earliest possible date to define the scope, duration and verification as well as corresponding measures for first steps for denuclearization." Diplomats use the phrase "corresponding measures" to mean concessions granted to the North.
Two previous rounds of six-nation talks, held at a walled government guesthouse in Beijing, produced no major progress on the stated goal of all of North Korea's negotiating partners: A nuclear-weapon-free Korean Peninsula.
This week, "there have been no breakthroughs," a senior US official said on Friday on condition of anonymity. "The process is moving along, but we're not ready to declare success."
But US Department spokesman Adam Ereli in Washington was more upbeat, saying negotiators were exchanging proposals.
"The parties have been earnest in exploring the various proposals put forward," Ereli said. "We expect this process to continue, following the closing of the talks."
Also yesterday, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported that US Defense Department officials told Japanese counterparts that North Korea may have test-launched a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan earlier in the week, ahead of the talks. Japan has not indepen-dently confirmed the information, Kyodo News said.
In Washington, Pentagon officials could not immediately confirm the report.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS