South Korea’s foreign minister pressed North Korea to take real steps toward nuclear disarmament and immediately rejoin stalled nuclear talks, expressing doubt yesterday over the regime’s latest conciliatory gestures.
After months of tension on its nuclear and missile programs, the North is reaching out to Seoul and Washington by releasing detainees and offering direct talks with the US. North Korea, however, sent mixed signals to the outside world last week by conducting missile tests and threatening a war.
“In spite of these gestures, however, there is no real ground as yet to view the North’s softening stance as an indication of fundamental change in its position on the nuclear issue,” South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told a Seoul forum.
Yu said that a barrage of short-range missile tests from North Korea last week and an announcement last month that the regime is enriching uranium contradict recent goodwill gestures. Uranium enrichment would provide North Korea with a second way to make nuclear bombs.
Yu said North Korea must first take “substantial” disarmament measures and return to stalled six-party disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan.
He said South Korea remains open to dialogue with the North, but will continue to enforce sanctions on the country for its May nuclear test to get the North to return to the talks.
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