The US' top North Korea negotiator has denied that China is making its cooperation in defusing the Korean Peninsula's nuclear crisis conditional on US efforts to press Taipei into accepting Beijing's demands on Taiwan.
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Christopher Hill, the top US negotiator to the six-party talks in Beijing, made his comment at a press briefing in Washington for the international media.
He was in Washington to report to the government after a recess in the fourth round of talks. A stalemate was reached over the weekend following Pyongyang's demands regarding its nuclear-power program.
Asked about speculation that China has linked the Korea and Taiwan issues, Hill issued a categorical denial.
"I've heard this issue about these, you know, tradeoffs with Taiwan, but I've only heard it in the media," he said in response to a reporter's question. "I have never ever -- and I've had numerous discussions with the Chinese about DPRK [North Korea] and the nuclear problem, and we have never mixed up the Taiwan issue," he said.
"Although, obviously, we've talked about the Taiwan issue many times, but never in connection with the DPRK's nuclear problem. So I can put that to rest right now," he said.
While there has been speculation for years about Beijing tying North Korea negotiations to the Taiwan issue, Beijing has not made any link explicit.
US officials have denied it, as have other specialists and sources in Washington over the years.
However, Hill's denial is the most authoritative and definitive to come from the administration.
In his position in the current six-party talks, and in his previous position as ambassador to South Korea, Hill has probably had more experience on the matter than anybody in Washington, and has probably talked with the Chinese leadership about the issue more than any other US official.
The latest round of talks broke down on Sunday when North Korea unexpectedly made a late demand for the right to operate light-water nuclear reactors, which US officials fear Pyongyang could use to develop nuclear weapons.
As a result, the talks are in a three-week recess after progressing for nearly two weeks. The talks could resume as soon as next month.
China and the US have regularly criticized each other for their actions -- or lack of action -- in bringing the nuclear issue to a resolution, but in the latest round of talks the atmosphere between the two nations was reported to be much more congenial.
Nevertheless, despite past criticism from Beijing, Washington sees Chinese cooperation as vital to any efforts to solve the North Korean nuclear issue. As a result, there has been persistent speculation that China has leaned on US officials for concessions on Taiwan as the price for cooperation on Korea.
Such speculation peaked during the end of 2003 and early last year, when US President George W. Bush and his administration adopted a decidedly unfriendly stance toward President Chen Shui-bian (
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS