North and South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China began working-level talks yesterday to lay the foundation for a third round of the complex discussions on the North Korean nuclear crisis.
Officials from several parties involved have cautioned that scant progress can be expected at the third round of senior-level talks to be held in Beijing from Wednesday to Saturday to try to end a 20-month standoff between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
PHOTO: AP
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (
Asked if he expected more progress than at the previous two rounds, Li said: "Yes."
"I hope we will make progress. We hope the peninsula will be nuclear free and enjoy peace and stability," Li told reporters on the sidelines of an Asian diplomatic forum in the eastern Chinese port of Qingdao.
The talks should be held in a "pragmatic, relaxed atmosphere," he said.
The crisis erupted in October 2002, when US officials said North Korea had disclosed it was working on a secret program to enrich uranium for weapons, in violation of an international agreement.
North Korea denies it had a uranium enrichment program, but early last year it threw out UN nuclear inspectors, withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and restarted a mothballed nuclear reactor from which weapons-grade plutonium can be extracted.
"Various parties' political willingness, diplomatic wisdom, patience in negotiations and ability to compromise will go through a rigorous test," the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's Communist Party, said in a commentary at the start of the two days of working talks.
"Historical grievances that have piled up, conflict of practical interests, different security strategies in addition to the US elections have decided that a fundamental resolution to the Korean peninsula nuclear issue will be a long and difficult process, and reversals may even appear," the newspaper said.
China has said expectations should not be too high from these talks, and many analysts have said North Korea may be waiting for the outcome of the US presidential elections in November before deciding whether to take part in serious bargaining.
China, one of the few friends of isolated communist North Korea, has said that what it called Pyong-yang's reasonable demands should be given emphasis and resolved.
The US side is demanding the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear programs.
North Korea said yesterday the US was chiefly to blame for the standoff.
"It is the US which reneged on its international obligation and wantonly violated the NPT," the North's KCNA news agency said, quoting the Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
"For a fair solution to the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US the countries concerned should demand the US drop at once its hostile policy toward the DPRK," it said.
DPRK, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is the official name for North Korea.
Japanese media said on Saturday that Tokyo would offer energy assistance to North Korea, in need of aid for its struggling economy, at the talks but only if the communist state freezes its nuclear programs.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS