South Korea yesterday replaced its chief negotiator in six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament.
Kim Sook, 55, a former director general of the foreign ministry’s US affairs bureau, has replaced Chun Yung-woo, the ministry said in a statement.
The new government of conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has replaced a series of senior officials in several ministries.
The change comes as the talks have reached a critical stage.
The US, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia reached a deal last year which would grant North Korea energy aid and major diplomatic and security benefits in return for full denuclearization.
But the talks have been stalled for months by a dispute over the communist state’s nuclear declaration, which was promised by the end of last year. Washington says the document should clear up suspicions about an alleged secret uranium enrichment program and suspected proliferation to Syria. North Korea denies both charges.
Hopes of breaking the impasse emerged since last week when top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan met in Singapore to debate the form of the declaration.
US President George W. Bush has accepted the tentative deal reached in Singapore, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Monday.
Media reports say the North would “acknowledge” concerns about uranium and proliferation in a secret side-agreement with the US. The main declaration would refer only to the acknowledged plutonium-based weapons operation.
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il promoted 35 generals yesterday as the country marked one of its biggest national holidays, the birthday of his late father.
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