Nuke negotiator heads to U.S. to discuss N.K.

Wi Sung-lac, the nation`s top nuclear negotiator, yesterday headed for the United States to discuss Washington`s upcoming meeting with North Korea, which is expected to be a prelude to future discussions on ending the North`s nuclear weapons programs.

"The trip is mainly to coordinate with the Barack Obama administration on the North Korean nuclear issue, and from a broader perspective, seek joint efforts to resume the six-party talks," said one high-ranking Foreign Ministry official who declined to be identified.

Wi also will visit Japan to meet his Japanese counterpart in the six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea`s nuclear weapons programs.

"There will be discussion on Japan`s views for the comprehensive package. (South Korea and the United States) have offered as a solution to eradicating North Korea`s nuclear arsenal," the ministry official said.

Wi`s visit comes as Washington and Pyongyang appeared poised to meet for a bilateral meeting the North has been seeking since July this year when it appeared to put an abrupt end to saber-rattling and reengaged with the United States and South Korea.



The two sides have reportedly already agreed to meet some time after President Barack Obama wraps up his Asian tour in mid-November.

The State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the government would make the decision on the bilateral dialogue "when the time is right."

Wi earlier said he expects the meeting to occur "soon," since the North extended its invitation to the United States in August, "which was quite a long time ago."

The real question, ministry officials pointed out, was that whether it would reap desired results.

Seoul and Washington hope to achieve substantial progress in denuclearizing the North, but skeptics have said it would be a tough task since the allies -- and even China -- are determined not to be strung along by Pyongyang, as they have been in the past.

As a positive sign, however, North Korean deputy nuclear envoy Ri Gun acquiesced to Washington`s demands to regard the talks as a part of the framework of the six-nation talks, according to Foreign Policy magazine and other news reports.

The reports also said Ri, during preliminary discussions with Washington`s chief nuclear negotiator Sung Kim last month, agreed to appoint the North`s first vice foreign minister Kang Sok-ju to counterpart Stephen Bosworth who is Washington`s special representative to the North.

Bosworth is thus expected to sit down with Kang in Pyongyang for the bilateral meeting.

But on other demands, such as an immediate return to the six-party talks and recommitting to the Sept. 19, 2005 declaration, the North reportedly declined to respond.

The declaration calls for the North to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and return, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry declined to confirm that North had agreed to some of the preconditions.

Moon Tae-young, the Foreign Ministry spokesman yesterday said he was aware of reports of such a dialogue between Ri and Kim but said he had no comment.

The North gestured it was willing to come out for talks with the United States in July, following months of brinkmanship tactics that included a second nuclear test.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in October went as far as saying he would agree to the six-nation talks based on the results of a one-on-one with Washington.

Pyongyang quit the multilateral dialogue in April after the United Nations Security Council denounced its rocket launch. On May 25, it conducted its second nuclear test.

Earlier this week, the North claimed that it had finished reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods, indicating it has resumed activity at its nuclear facilities.

(jemmie@heraldm.com)









By Kim Ji-hyun