North Korea talks expected to be tense
Christopher Hill (left) hopes talks with North Korea will prove productive
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Thursday, 10, Jul 2008 09:37
Diplomats will be hoping North Korea's six-party nuclear disarmament talks will make progress when they resume today.
China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US are engaging with North Korea in negotiations which have so far produced the halting of uranium enrichment and, last month, the demolition of the main cooling tower at the Yongbyon plant.
Despite the US alleviating some of its sanctions against North Korea, analysts say tension remains high and it is too early to say whether the latest round of talks will be a success.
US envoy Christopher Hill told reporters in Beijing yesterday he wants Pyongyang to accept "verification" as a priority.
"The main objective, as the Chinese stated, will be to work out the verification regime to complete phase two," he said.
"Obviously the cooling tower is done, but we need to discharge the reactor. We hope we can pick up the pace to do that. And there are some other elements of disablement that we’d like to move more quickly on."
The G8 leaders meeting in Hokkaido, Japan earlier this week also emphasised the "verifiable denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula.
North Korea may drag its feet, however, as it claims it has not received the fuel aid it was promised in return for dismantling its nuclear programme.
Japanese payments are part of the problem. Tokyo is hoping to withhold its part of the deal until North Korea returns 17 Japanese fishermen allegedly abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
"We… strongly urge [North Korea] to take prompt actions to address other security and human rights/humanitarian concerns including the early resolution of the abduction issue," yesterday's G8 statement added.