North Korea has told South Korea it would return to talks on its nuclear drive in June and offer to suspend the program in hopes of aid and a US pledge not to invade, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday.
Pyongyang told Seoul through unofficial channels about its intention late last month after it announced it was indefinitely pulling out of nuclear talks, the Sankei Shimbun said, citing Japanese government sources.
The conservative newspaper said North Korea had set June to return to talks because the US has insisted that Pyongyang come back to the table within a year.
The last six-nation negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program were last June in Beijing, with Pyongyang boycotting a fourth round of talks scheduled for September citing Washington's "hostile policy."
The Sankei said North Korea would offer at the next six-nation talks to suspend its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid. With the progress in hand, Pyongyang would hope to reach an agreement in October with the US in which Washington would pledge not to invade, the report said.
South Korean and Japanese officials denied the report.
"The report is not true. If it had been true, we would have aggressively made it public," a South Korean foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said: "I have not heard anything about it."
"But June is so far away and I cannot even imagine" what will happen, Hosoda said, adding that Japan hoped the next round of six-way talks would be held soon.
The Sankei said North Korea had been seeking concessions and decided to return to talks after realizing that re-elected US President George W. Bush would not change his firm stance on Pyongyang.
North Korea said on Feb. 10 that it had developed nuclear weapons for self-defense due to hostility from Washington and would indefinitely boycott the talks involving the two Koreas, China, the US, Japan and Russia.
However, leader Kim Jong-il later told a Chinese envoy that Pyongyang would return to talks if certain conditions were met.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in