N. Korea calls for new 'specific' form of dialogue

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, UPDATES with details, Seoul's response)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, July 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Monday demanded a new "specific" form
of dialogue to resolve the nuclear stalemate and reiterated it won't return to
the six-party talks, in an apparent call for bilateral talks with the United
States.
In a statement from its foreign ministry spokesman, North Korea rejected an
international call in the ASEAN Regional Forum last week that Pyongyang should
rejoin the denuclearization talks it withdrew from in April, saying other nations
should know better why the six-party framework came to a "definite end."
"As a party concerned, we know what should be done to resolve the problem far
better than anyone else," the unidentified spokesman said in the statement
carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
"There is a specific and reserved form of dialogue that can address the current
situation," he said, in an apparent reference to bilateral talks with Washington.

The assertion followed a rare comment by the North Korean ambassador to the
United Nations, Sin Son-ho, in New York on Saturday, who said Pyongyang is ready
to talk to Washington.
"The six-party talks are gone forever," he told reporters. "(But) We are not
against dialogue. We are not against any negotiation for the issues of common
concern."
But Washington was unresponsive to the idea of a bilateral approach. U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated Washington's call on Pyongyang to
return to the multilateral talks that also involve South Korea, China, Japan and
Russia.
"We still want North Korea to come back to the negotiating table, to be part of
an international effort that will lead to denuclearization," Clinton said on an
NBC television program, after returning from the ASEAN forum.
Clinton also described North Korea as "very isolated now." Referring to one of
the regional meetings she attended, she said "They don't have any friends left"
and "Everyone else just didn't even listen to him" as a North Korean
representative presented criticisms of Washington.
South Korea joined the U.S. call for six-party talks.
"The most important thing now is that North Korea should join efforts to resolve
the nuclear issue peacefully and should return to the six-party talks as soon as
possible," Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said in a briefing.
With the latest statement, North Korea said some countries in the ASEAN forum
accepted the U.S. views "without grasping the essence of the matter."
The principle of the six-party talks was "disregarded" when the member countries
condemned its long-range rocket launch in April, the spokesman said. The U.N.
condemnation for the launch and subsequent resolution of sanctions destroyed the
North's sovereignty and equality, that were stipulated in a six-party agreement
in 2005 as the lifeblood of the talks, he said.
North Korea says the launch was to orbit a satellite, while South Korea, the U.S.
and Japan see it as a disguised missile test.
"The six-party talks were consequently reduced to a platform for blocking even
the DPRK's (North Korea) development of science and technology for peaceful
purposes and curbing the normal progress of its economy," the spokesman said.
Other members of the talks also want to "disarm and incapacitate the DPRK so that
it can only subsist on the bread crumbs thrown away by them," he added.
"This is the essence and the background of the current state of affairs, which
the countries that are not parties to the six-party talks should understand," he
said.
The six-party talks began in 2003 to seek ways of terminating the North's nuclear
weapons program. The last session of the dialogue was held in December amid
disputes on how to verify the North's past nuclear activities.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)