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North agrees to another round of talks

The head of the North Korean delegation, Choe Yong-gon, left, and South Korean counterpart Bahk Byong-won, the vice finance minister, smile together at the venue of inter-Korean economic talks in Seoul yesterday. PHOTO: AP

North Korea says it has agreed with the US to return to nuclear talks to be held on July 25, the South Korean KCNA news agency reported late yesterday.

In related news, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sent a message Friday to North Korea that Washington has no intention of attacking the hardline communist nation as she embarked on an Asian trip to ease a nuclear crisis in the Korean peninsula.

North Korea has persistently cited "US hostility" as a key reason for boycotting the six-party talks -- among the US, Japan, China, the two Koreas and Russia -- and had demanded a clear security guarantee from Washington.

"The key here is that there were some important things to say -- important to reiterate [President George W. Bush's] pledge given back in 2002 in South Korea that the US has no intention of attacking or invading" North Korea, Rice said.

The US also considers North Korea a sovereign nation, she told reporters accompanying her on the plane to China, Thailand, South Korea and Japan.

"It was important to state what we consider to be a statement of fact that the US considers North Korea a sovereign state -- after all, the North Koreans are members of the UN and held negotiations along with other sovereign states," she said.

Last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said his country would come back to the six-party talks if the US "recognizes and respects" his country as a dialogue partner.

In other developments, North Korean government officials arrived in Seoul yesterday ahead of four days of talks with their South Korean counterparts aimed at building closer inter-Korean economic cooperation. North Korea's five-member delegation, headed by deputy minister for construction and building Choe Yong-gon, kickstarted the visit with a dinner hosted by South Korea's Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young.

During the talks set to begin today, the two sides will discuss North Korea's request for 500,000 tonnes of rice to supplement a reduction in World Food Program assistance.

North Korea had rejected a US-led aid-for-disarmament proposal at the last round of the talks in June 2004 that required Pyongyang to give an upfront pledge to dismantle all its nuclear programs before receiving any energy and other assistance. Pyongyang wants a step by step approach to weaning away from its nuclear program, fearing it could come under attack by the US if it loses the nuclear card.

The US was part of the security guarantee given to North Korea by the five other parties at the nuclear talks but Pyongyang had complained there was no individual guarantee from Washington. As if to address this concern, Rice said Friday: "There are principles on the table that the US has no intention to invade or attack North Korea.

"I think if they heard from the US, they would certainly believe that would be in the security assurances of any of the other parties," she said.

Efforts to break the impasse in the nuclear crisis that had gripped the Korean peninsula for some two and a half years is clearly expected to dominate Rice's Asian trip. She will first visit China, the host of the six-party talks, and then to tsunami-hit Thailand before returning to Northeast Asia for talks with key Asian allies Japan and South Korea.

This is Rice's second trip to China, South Korea and Japan in some three months and analysts see it as a reflection of Washington's eagerness to see an end to the nuclear turmoil, viewed as Asia's biggest security problem.
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