US Secretary of State Colin Powell and North Korea's foreign minister discussed Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions yesterday, the highest-level bilateral meeting since a crisis over the North's atomic plans erupted almost two years ago.
Powell and Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun held a 20-minute scheduled discussion over mineral water on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum security talks in Jakarta.
"The secretary said there was an opportunity for concrete progress," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, reflecting signs of new-found flexibility by the US to end an impasse that has cast a shadow over the security of north Asia.
While North Korea put a positive spin on the talks, it stressed after the meeting that the two sides did not trust each other and stuck to its position that Washington should guarantee it would not attack and would reward the impoverished communist state if it freezes its programs.
"If the United States is of the position to improve the bilateral relations, the DPRK also will not regard the US as a permanent enemy," Paek said in a statement. DPRK -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- is North Korea's official name.
The two officials last met over a cup of coffee at the ASEAN forum two years ago in Brunei in a much less formal encounter. That took place shortly before the nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when Washington said Pyongyang admitted to illegally developing nuclear arms.
Yesterday's discussion followed a third round of six-party talks to resolve the standoff last week in Beijing that included the most detailed US proposal to date in a sign of a real start to negotiations.
The meeting and proposal represent the most conciliatory US overtures to North Korea since President George W. Bush bracketed the Stalinist state part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and pre-war Iraq.
"As I mentioned earlier, both sides agreed in principle to establish trust which we are lacking. We agreed to that in principle, so the atmosphere at the meeting was good," North Korean Foreign Ministry official Chung Song-il told reporters.
But the two sides remain far apart because of a fundamental dispute over the extent of the suspected programs and the North's desire to have a deterrent to ensure its communist system endures, political analysts have said.
"The secretary emphasized the administration's proposals to move forward on dismantlement of North Korean nuclear programs," Boucher said of yesterday's meeting. "The discussion was useful to help clarify each side's proposal."
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS