North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a visiting Chinese envoy that his government will return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks if the US shows sincerity and if certain conditions are met, the North's official news agency reported yesterday.
The Korean Central News Agency did not elaborate on the conditions, but the report could indicate that North Korea would be ready to strike a deal with the US on returning to the talks but that it might need further diplomatic coaxing to do that.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said that the US is ready to resume the talks "without preconditions." Washington previously has opposed granting the North any concessions merely for returning to the table.
Japan said that North Korea's return to the talks would be "welcome," while China said more effort was needed by all parties before the negotiations could restart.
Efforts to get North Korea back into the talks have taken on new urgency since Pyongyang flouted Washington and its allies on Feb. 10 with its unconfirmed declaration that it had built nuclear weapons, and its announcement that it would boycott further six-party talks.
Kim's latest comments on the escalating standoff came during a meeting with a high-level envoy from China, his impoverished country's only remaining major ally.
Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, traveled to Pyongyang to urge the North to return to the talks, which involve the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia.
"We will go to the negotiating table anytime if there are mature conditions for the six-party talks," Kim told the envoy, expressing hope that the US would show "trustworthy sincerity" and take unspecified action, KCNA said.
Kim said North Korea "would as ever stand for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and its position to seek a peaceful solution to the issue through dialogue remains unchanged," the news agency said.
North Korea previously has said it would return to the talks only if the US drops its "hostile" policy toward the North. It has condemned US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's description of North Korea as an "outpost of tyranny," calling the remark evidence that Washington seeks a regime change in Pyongyang.
North Korea seeks to trade its nuclear weapons programs for massive economic aid, diplomatic recognition and a nonaggression treaty with Washington -- measures that it hopes will guarantee the survival of Kim's Stalinist regime.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘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
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS