ID :
206418
Sat, 09/10/2011 - 17:59
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/206418
The shortlink copeid
No positive action yet from N. Korea to reopen six-party talks: Wi
SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has yet to take meaningful steps to re-start long-stalled six-party talks on its nuclear programs, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy said Saturday after a visit to the United States.
Wi Sung-lac met with Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and other senior U.S. officials to discuss the North's nuclear programs during his trip to Washington.
"There is no North Korean response yet, and South Korea and the United States are waiting," Wi told Yonhap News Agency by phone after arrival at Incheon International Airport.
North Korea calls for an early resumption of the talks without any pre-conditions but Seoul and Washington maintain that the communist country should first prove in action before re-opening the forum that it will not renege again on its earlier promise to denuclearize.
Any such North Korean action could include the re-entry of U.N. nuclear monitors the country expelled at the height of the current nuclear crisis in 2002, Seoul officials said.
Wi said he has confirmed during the trip that the United States supports another round of inter-Korean nuclear talks. The nuclear envoys of the two Koreas met on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Indonesia in July for the first time in more than two years.
The inter-Korean nuclear talks paved the way for a rare high-level meeting between North Korea and the U.S. in New York later that month on nuclear and other issues pending between the two countries.
"I confirmed strong U.S. support for the second round of inter-Korean denuclearization talks," Wi said, adding that North Korea has shown no indication that it would go for another meeting with South Korea.
The envoy also said Washington was cautious about holding follow-up talks with North Korea.
The six-party talks, which involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, were suspended in 2009 when North Korea walked out of it.
The stalled six-party talks were a major issue when North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a Siberian city last month.
Wi Sung-lac met with Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and other senior U.S. officials to discuss the North's nuclear programs during his trip to Washington.
"There is no North Korean response yet, and South Korea and the United States are waiting," Wi told Yonhap News Agency by phone after arrival at Incheon International Airport.
North Korea calls for an early resumption of the talks without any pre-conditions but Seoul and Washington maintain that the communist country should first prove in action before re-opening the forum that it will not renege again on its earlier promise to denuclearize.
Any such North Korean action could include the re-entry of U.N. nuclear monitors the country expelled at the height of the current nuclear crisis in 2002, Seoul officials said.
Wi said he has confirmed during the trip that the United States supports another round of inter-Korean nuclear talks. The nuclear envoys of the two Koreas met on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Indonesia in July for the first time in more than two years.
The inter-Korean nuclear talks paved the way for a rare high-level meeting between North Korea and the U.S. in New York later that month on nuclear and other issues pending between the two countries.
"I confirmed strong U.S. support for the second round of inter-Korean denuclearization talks," Wi said, adding that North Korea has shown no indication that it would go for another meeting with South Korea.
The envoy also said Washington was cautious about holding follow-up talks with North Korea.
The six-party talks, which involve the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, were suspended in 2009 when North Korea walked out of it.
The stalled six-party talks were a major issue when North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a Siberian city last month.
