North Korea and US Spar Causing Talks to Stall

By JOSEPH KAHN Published: November 12, 2005

BEIJING, Nov. 11 - The United States and North Korea sparred over financial penalties and whether to negotiate a nuclear freeze or focus on full disarmament, as six-nation nuclear talks ended Friday on the same inconclusive and not very hopeful note they began with three days earlier.

The meeting, the first since the parties reached a framework agreement in September on ending the North's atomic weapons efforts, failed to resolve even basic procedural issues, like setting up working groups to tackle technical problems pertaining to inspections and other matters. All sides agreed to resume discussion soon, but they did not set a date to do so, according to China, the host of the talks.

North Korea accused the United States of "spoiling the atmosphere" of the negotiations because the Treasury Department imposed penalties on a bank in the Chinese territory of Macao on Sept. 15, a senior American official said. The bank, Banco Delta Asia, was accused of laundering money for North Korea.

The United States rejected a North Korean proposal simply to freeze production of nuclear fuel in return for aid. Washington insisted that the focus remain on complete disarmament rather than the interim steps that North Korea would have to take anyway if it intended to end its weapons program, the American official said.

"They are going to have to surrender the program anyway, so I'm not going to pay them for the same thing twice," said the official, who requested anonymity in exchange for speaking candidly about the talks. "We would really like to avoid tit-for-tat negotiations that could take years."

The session gave an indication of the long and likely tortuous road to carrying out the broad and vaguely worded September agreement, in which the United States, North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia agreed to work toward North Korean nuclear disarmament in exchange for economic, diplomatic and security benefits for the Communist government.

The parties all acknowledged that the latest talks had produced no results, but that they also had appeared to be mostly low-key and businesslike. Beijing emphasized the positive, calling the talks "pragmatic and constructive" and saying they would reconvene soon.

"The parties reaffirmed that they would fully implement the joint statement in line with the principle of 'commitment for commitment, action for action,' so as to realize the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula at an early date," the Chinese side said in a statement.

Among issues that remain contentious are conflicting claims about the scope of North Korea's nuclear program. The United States says it has strong evidence that North Korea has pursued an underground effort to use enriched uranium for nuclear fuel in addition to its better known plutonium fuel program. The North denies having a uranium program.

"H.E.U. is going to be a major issue when we get to the declarative stage," said Chris Hill, the top American negotiator at the talks, using the abbreviation for highly enriched uranium.

The latest round of talks was also sidetracked by North Korean complaints that the United States tried to poison the atmosphere of the talks when it imposed a ban on American financial institutions doing business with Banco Delta Asia in the former Portuguese colony of Macao, which is now Chinese controlled.

The penalties, prompted by American allegations that the bank worked secretly with North Korea for 20 years and helped it traffic in drugs, led to a run on the bank. That prompted the authorities in Macao to freeze the bank's assets.

The United States agreed to send a team to explain the penalties to North Korea in the near future, Mr. Hill said. But he added that North Korea would continue to face such penalties unless it stopped trafficking in illicit arms and drugs.

American officials said that they were determined to keep the talks moving, but that making progress depended mainly on the North Koreans' deciding that it was in their interest to end the nuclear standoff.

"I'm not going to be more concerned about getting an agreement than North Korea is," said the senior American official. "They have to decide that it's in their interest as well."

North Korea Demands Aid Before Disarmament

Saturday, November 12, 2005

BEIJING — North Korea on Saturday stood by its demand for aid in exchange for shutting down a plutonium-producing reactor, insisting that it would not act until Washington offers concessions.

"As we have to follow the `action for action' principle, we will act if action is made," the North's envoy to six-nation disarmament talks, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, told The Associated Press. "We will never move first."

Kim did not say what concessions the North wanted. He spoke at the Beijing airport as he prepared to return home following the close of the latest round of talks Friday.

The U.S. envoy to the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, urged the North on Friday to shut down the reactor at Yongbyon but said he had rejected Kim's demand for aid in exchange. Washington says the reactor is producing plutonium, a fuel for bombs.

"They should be stopping their programs immediately," Hill told reporters.

A round of six-nation talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear programs concluded Friday with no sign of progress or a date to meet again.

In response to Hill's call, Kim insisted that Washington lift sanctions on companies accused of weapons proliferation.

There was no indication of progress toward the goal set by host China for this week's talks — agreeing on details of how to carry out North Korea's pledge in September to give up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and a security guarantee.

The competing demands highlight the key dispute in the talks — North Korea's insistence on receiving compensation before it disarms completely, and Washington's refusal to reward Pyongyang until that goal is accomplished.

North Korea also wants a light-water civilian nuclear reactor for power generation before it disarms. But Hill said the other governments agreed that they should not even discuss that until the North's other programs are dismantled.

The talks, the fifth set in a series, began Wednesday and were due to last only three days so diplomats could attend an Asian economic forum in South Korea. The participants are the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

China issued a brief, upbeat chairman's statement saying negotiators affirmed their September declaration to achieve the "verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

At the talks Hill, repeated Washington's insistence that it would not discuss aid until all the North's programs are dismantled permanently.

"We are not prepared to launch a separate negotiation to have a freeze because freezing programs does not solve this problem," he said. "We have to get rid of these things."

Kim pressed Pyongyang's demand for an end to the U.S. sanctions imposed in October on eight companies accused of trafficking in nuclear, missile or biological weapons technology.

It was unclear whether those sanctions would have any effect, since the United States already bans trade with North Korea. But sanctions also were applied to a Macau bank that dealt with North Korean companies, disrupting Pyongyang's commercial activities.

"These kind of sanctions are in violation of the joint statement we have adopted and are going to hinder the implementation of the commitment we have made," Kim told reporters outside the North's Embassy.

China's statement said negotiators agreed to meet again at the "earliest possible date."

Diplomats said that could be as late as January because of conflicts with other official meetings and the Christmas holiday.

"There was an assessment that it will be a little bit difficult to hold tangible meetings," said the South Korean envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon.

Nuke talks substantive and constructive

(China Daily) Updated: 2005-11-11 07:50

The ongoing Six-Party Talks in Beijing, that aim for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, have so far been "substantive and constructive," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regular news briefing.

Yesterday, the second day of the fifth round of talks on the DPRK nuclear issue, participants tried to thrash out ways to implement a set of principles they agreed upon in September.

Pyongyang has promised it is ready to give up its nuclear weapons and programmes in phases on condition that the country is first provided light-water reactors.

However, the US wants the DPRK to shut its reactors and stop reprocessing spent fuel into weapons-grade plutonium as the first steps in implementing the agreement.

The format of future talks was also a major topic in yesterday's discussions.

China is expected to release a chairman's statement before the talks break for a recess in the next few days.

"We're still planning to end the talks tomorrow," Liu said. "Whether we can issue a chairman's statement or not depends on reaching a consensus today or tomorrow," he said yesterday.

It is the fifth time Beijing is hosting the Six-Party Talks, which involve China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan.

Below: Excerpt from the Chairman’s statement:

The parties agreed to hold the second-phase meeting "at the earliest possible date," according to the chairman's statement.

The statement says the parties conducted "serious, pragmatic and constructive discussions" and put forward proposals on how to implement the joint statement of the fourth round of the six-party talks.

The parties emphasized that they are willing to comprehensively implement the joint statement through confidence building, carry out all commitments in different areas, commence and conclude the process in a timely and coordinated manner and achieve balanced interests and win-win result through cooperation, says the statement.

"The parties agreed to formulate concrete plans, measures and steps to fulfill the joint statement in accordance with the afore-mentioned spirit," it says.