A Chinese diplomat said yesterday that North Korean negotiators are showing a positive attitude toward restarting six-nation nuclear talks, but a top US official said he had no plans to meet directly with Pyongyang officials at a regional security conference.
North Korea has showing "some" signs of positive commitment, said Wu Dawei (
"We can expect some progress," he said, without giving details. "We will make an effort toward a positive direction."
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill urged the North Koreans to return to six-nation nuclear talks, but said he has no plans to meet one-on-one with the North Korean side, dimming hopes for a breakthrough.
"The North Koreans have not yet decided to return to the talks," Hill said after arriving at Tokyo's Narita international airport, adding that both countries held unproductive meetings on the matter in January and March.
"I'm not sure there's much more I can talk to them about," he said.
Hill's comments followed a flurry of diplomatic meeting that have so far produced little progress in resuming stalled six-nation dialogue on disarming North Korea. North Korea has refused to restart talks unless US financial restrictions imposed on North Korean companies are lifted. But Washington maintains the restrictions are unrelated to the nuclear talks and will stay in place.
The North agreed in the six-nation talks last year to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. But talks have been stalled amid the dispute over the US sanctions, which were imposed on a Macau-based bank and North Korean companies for alleged counterfeiting and other illegal activities.
The presence of delegates from the six nations involved in the nuclear talks -- the US, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia -- at the privately sponsored security conference in Tokyo has raised the possibility of jump-starting the nuclear talks.
Speaking at yesterday's opening ceremony, Susan Shirk, co-organizer of the talks, said the conference "might be helpful" for officials involved, but cautioned, "This forum is not a substitute for the official six-party talks."
The forum's agenda will focus on energy, efforts to bolster the verification process regarding the North's nuclear program, and on ways to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The conference, sponsored by a private Japanese organization and the University of California, San Diego, brings together about 70 government officials and private researchers from the six countries.
At the forum, Vice Foreign Minister Koji Tsuruoka said a denuclearized Korean Peninsula is vital to peace and stability in Northeast Asia, and urged North Korea to return to disarmament talks as soon as possible, national broadcaster NHK said.
Over the weekend, delegates from Japan and South Korean held separate meetings with their North Korean counterparts, but didn't reach any breakthroughs.
North Korea has meanwhile said it has no plans to hold bilateral meetings with the US, but its chief delegate, Kim Kye-gwan, said yesterday it would be "good if we could meet." Chun Young-woo, South Korea's top negotiator, said he didn't think a US-North Korean meeting was possible in Tokyo.
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