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North Korea – nuclear talks

North Korea considers return to disarmament talks

Article published on the 2009-10-06 Latest update 2009-10-06 14:03 TU

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L) meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, 3 October 2009.(Photo: Reuters)

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L) meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, 3 October 2009.
(Photo: Reuters)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Tuesday told China's premier Wen Jiabao that the North is prepared to return to multinational disarmament talks but only on condition that it has a two-way meeting with the US first.

Kim's comments, carried Tuesday by official North Korean and Chinese media, are the clearest sign yet that Pyongyang is readying to resume six-nation talks. It withdrew from them after conducting a long-range rocket test in April and a second nuclear test in May.

A report Tuesday by South Korea's Yonhap news agency says that US and South Korean intelligence agencies believe the North is in the final stages of restoring its nuclear programme. It pledged to disable it in 2007 before backing out of the disarmament process.

In a meeting Monday, Kim told Chinese Premier Wen that the North "is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States," China's Xinhua News Agency said in a report issued early Tuesday.

Bilateral talks would help convert the "hostile relations" between the Pyongyang and Washington into "peaceful ties", Kim said.

US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Washington was aware of reports that North Korea would reconsider opening talks but said the United States had not gotten details of the meeting from the Chinese.

"We've talked to our Chinese partners in the six-party talks and we're conducting close co-ordination with China and the other partners in the talks," Kelly said.

"We, of course, encourage any kind of dialogue that would help us lead to our ultimate goal that's shared by all the partners in the six-party talks, which is the complete and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula."

After coming under Chinese pressure to go to six-party talks, Pyongyang feels it is in a position of exchange after a second missile test in May, says German Korea-watcher Sebastian Harnisch.

Analysis:Sebastian Harnisch, Heidelberg University

06/10/2009 by Alison Hird

"It has been a cat and mouse play over the last decade or so with North Korea," he says. "And I think this move to return to return to the six-party talks is again a tactical move trying to find out if the United States is willing to pay the price for this return, probably a partial lifting of the sanctions and maybe even more later on."

Pyongyang may hope to be able to win US co-operation for a civilian nuclear programme.

"That, of course, brings us back to the deal which was struck ... in Geneva in 1994, where the United States was committed to provide light-water reactors to North Korea in exchange for a denuclearisation of North Korea [in the armaments field]."

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