Seoul pessimistic on N.K.-U.S. talks

From news reports



South Korea sees tangible results from the U.S.-North Korean meeting next month as "dark" because Pyongyang has yet to promise to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks, a senior official said yesterday.

Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korean policy, is scheduled to visit the communist state on Dec. 8 with an aim to persuade the North to return to six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations.

"There is no confirmed signal that North Korea will return to the six-party talks," the official told a group of local reporters on condition of anonymity.

"At the moment, we must say the prospects are dark."

North Korea quit the six-party talks in April and tested a second atomic weapon in May. Its leader Kim Jong-il said last month he was ready to return to the talks, but only if bilateral discussions with the United States are satisfactory.

The six-nation talks, which began more than six years ago, group the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

Bosworth will come to South Korea on a commercial flight and then travel on a military aircraft to Pyongyang via a U.S. air base in Osan, south of Seoul, according to the unnamed Seoul official.



The U.S. envoy is unlikely to bring a letter from U.S. President Barack Obama for Pyongyang or meet with the North Korean leader during his trip, the official said.

Japan`s Kyodo news agency earlier this month quoted a U.S. State Department official as saying Bosworth will brief officials in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul and Moscow on the results of his trip to Pyongyang afterwards.

On Friday, President Lee Myung-Bak said he was open to any type of dialogue with his North Korean counterpart if it would help resolve the nuclear stand-off.

"I won`t insist on holding a summit in Seoul. It doesn`t matter even if the summit venue is outside (South) Korea," the South Korean leader said during a televised town hall meeting.

Lee added however that he had no immediate plans to push for a summit.

Lee said any summit meeting between North and South would be arranged and held transparently.

"Because denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is such an important issue, I plan to meet (Kim) at any time and anywhere, as long as our objective of such a summit will be achieved," he said.

The Koreas held summit talks in 2000 and 2007 and agreed on a series of reconciliation events and joint economic projects.

Pyongyang began making peace overtures in August, after months of bitter hostility that began when Lee took office in February 2008 and linked economic cooperation to the North`s nuclear disarmament.

Relations worsened again after a naval clash on Nov. 10 on the tense West Sea border.

North Korea said Saturday it is now up to South Korea to take steps to thaw their chilled relations, claiming it has done all it can.

Rodong Sinmun, a newspaper published by the ruling Workers` Party, claimed the Seoul government has not done even a "little bit" to help improve cross-border ties.

"If the South Korean government is even a bit interested in North-South relations, it will naturally have to show a positive reaction to our fair actions," the newspaper said, according to a report by Uriminzokkiri, the North`s official website.

"We have done everything we were supposed to for the improvement of North-South relations and now it is time for the South Korean government to reply," the report said.

The article mimicked Lee`s repeated calls on Pyongyang to fundamentally change its stance toward the South and the international community, saying no country or organization will work with the North unless it first denuclearizes.