ID :
34283
Sat, 12/06/2008 - 20:21
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/34283
The shortlink copeid
(2nd LD) North Korea says it will boycott Japan in six-party talks
(ATTN: MODIFIES lead, ADDS detail)
SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Saturday slammed Japan as "a hurdle" to
the denuclearization process and said it will boycott Tokyo in the upcoming round
of six-party nuclear talks.
"We will neither treat Japan as a party to the talks nor deal with it even if it
impudently appears in the conference room, lost to shame," a spokesman for North
Korea's Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the North's Korean Central News
Agency.
"It is only Japan out of those parties that has not done anything to fulfill its
commitment but is still refusing to do so," the spokesman said.
Japan has been reluctant to provide 200,000 tons of oil as part of a broader
aid-for-denuclearization deal, linking the assistance to North Korea's abduction
of Japanese citizens decades ago.
North Korea returned five Japanese abductees in 2002, soon after an unprecedented
summit between the leaders of the two countries, but Japan claims several more
abductees are still alive in North Korea. The North says they are dead.
"It is the ulterior intention of Japan to bar the denuclearization of the
peninsula from coming true and put spurs to its moves to turn itself into a
military power under the pretext of the nuclear issue," the spokesman said.
"Such country has neither justification nor qualification to participate in the
talks. On the contrary, it only lays a hurdle in the way of achieving the common
goal," he said.
The fresh round of six-party talks, also involving South Korea, the United
States, China and Russia, is scheduled to open in Beijing on Monday and expected
to continue for three days.
The key issue at the upcoming talks is whether North Korea will allow
international inspectors to take samples from its nuclear sites. Pyongyang has
refused the sampling, saying that was not part of an original deal, while
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo say it is necessary for verification.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan and U.S. chief nuclear envoy
Christopher Hill met in Singapore to narrow differences ahead of the six-party
talks.
"The issue is not the verification, the issue is how to express it in a piece of
paper ahead of time so there are no misunderstandings when the time comes," Hill
said in Singapore on Thursday.
Hill traveled to Seoul on Saturday ahead of next week's talks.
Top envoys of the six parties are expected to hold various bilateral or
multilateral meetings in Beijing ahead of formal negotiations to discuss the
verification protocol and fuel oil shipment and other forms of economic aid to
North Korea.
North Korea has been promised 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or the equivalent
by its five negotiating partners in exchange for disabling its key nuclear
facilities.
The North, however, said early last month that it had again slowed the pace of
disabling its Yongbyon nuclear plant due to the delayed arrival of energy
compensation.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Saturday slammed Japan as "a hurdle" to
the denuclearization process and said it will boycott Tokyo in the upcoming round
of six-party nuclear talks.
"We will neither treat Japan as a party to the talks nor deal with it even if it
impudently appears in the conference room, lost to shame," a spokesman for North
Korea's Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by the North's Korean Central News
Agency.
"It is only Japan out of those parties that has not done anything to fulfill its
commitment but is still refusing to do so," the spokesman said.
Japan has been reluctant to provide 200,000 tons of oil as part of a broader
aid-for-denuclearization deal, linking the assistance to North Korea's abduction
of Japanese citizens decades ago.
North Korea returned five Japanese abductees in 2002, soon after an unprecedented
summit between the leaders of the two countries, but Japan claims several more
abductees are still alive in North Korea. The North says they are dead.
"It is the ulterior intention of Japan to bar the denuclearization of the
peninsula from coming true and put spurs to its moves to turn itself into a
military power under the pretext of the nuclear issue," the spokesman said.
"Such country has neither justification nor qualification to participate in the
talks. On the contrary, it only lays a hurdle in the way of achieving the common
goal," he said.
The fresh round of six-party talks, also involving South Korea, the United
States, China and Russia, is scheduled to open in Beijing on Monday and expected
to continue for three days.
The key issue at the upcoming talks is whether North Korea will allow
international inspectors to take samples from its nuclear sites. Pyongyang has
refused the sampling, saying that was not part of an original deal, while
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo say it is necessary for verification.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan and U.S. chief nuclear envoy
Christopher Hill met in Singapore to narrow differences ahead of the six-party
talks.
"The issue is not the verification, the issue is how to express it in a piece of
paper ahead of time so there are no misunderstandings when the time comes," Hill
said in Singapore on Thursday.
Hill traveled to Seoul on Saturday ahead of next week's talks.
Top envoys of the six parties are expected to hold various bilateral or
multilateral meetings in Beijing ahead of formal negotiations to discuss the
verification protocol and fuel oil shipment and other forms of economic aid to
North Korea.
North Korea has been promised 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or the equivalent
by its five negotiating partners in exchange for disabling its key nuclear
facilities.
The North, however, said early last month that it had again slowed the pace of
disabling its Yongbyon nuclear plant due to the delayed arrival of energy
compensation.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
