Nuclear envoys from the two Koreas plan to meet for talks in Beijing next week, South Korean and Chinese officials said yesterday in the latest sign of diplomatic wrangling aimed at restarting long-stalled nuclear negotiations.
Seoul will send Wi Sung-lac to meet with North Korea’s Ri Yong-ho, a senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official said, declining to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the matter.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) said China would host an international symposium to commemorate the sixth anniversary of what was seen at the time as a landmark 2005 nuclear agreement in the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
Representatives from all six participating nations will take part, including Chinese lead negotiator Wu Dawei (武大偉), Yu said, but it was not immediately clear whether other nations would send their nuclear envoys.
After months of standoff, the Korean envoys to stalled international talks aimed at ridding the North of nuclear weapons held a surprise meeting in July on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Indonesia. That meeting raised hopes that talks that have not happened since December 2008 could restart soon, but there has been little progress since.
The South Korean official would only say the meeting would take place “in the middle of next week” and would be a chance for North Korea to “reaffirm its determination” to dismantle its nuclear arms programs.
He described the meeting as a “follow-up” to the talks in Indonesia.
Another official said that Wednesday was the likeliest date for the meeting. Both officials said the agenda has not been set yet.
Washington and Seoul have been wary of the North’s repeated calls for international nuclear talks, calling first for an improvement in dismal ties between the Koreas and for a sincere sign from the North that it will abide by past commitments it has made in previous rounds of the nuclear talks.
There has also been concern about North Korea’s uranium enrichment program.
One of the South Korean officials said Seoul and Washington remain unchanged in their position that Pyongyang should show it is taking steps toward nuclear dismantlement before the six-nation disarmament talks can resume.
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