Cornering Pyongyang back to the negotiating table
Seoul (AsiaNews) Little reaction when North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said his country would go back to the six-party talks if certain conditions were met.
North Korea had already taken a similar stance in mid-January before US President George W Bush's inauguration when it stated that it was prepared to take part in the fourth round of talks if the US ended its hostile attitudes.
Yesterday, Kim Jong-il reportedly told Wang Jiarui, head of China's Communist Party's international liaison department that Pyongyang was ready to negotiate "if there are mature conditions". Mr Wang spent four days trying to persuade Pyongyang to rejoin the stalled six-party talks.
Although representing his government, the Chinese envoy was carrying the diplomatic ball for the other four parties involved in the talks, namely the US, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
Startled by North Korea's announcement that it had nuclear weapons, all four have been putting pressure on China to get North Korea to go back to the negotiating table since, as its only ideological ally and economic partner, Beijing alone has still some leeway with Pyongyang.
As China's top envoy at the six-party talks since 2003, Mr Wang was in a good position to plead his case with North Korean leaders. Not only had he met envoys from the US, Japan and South Korea beforehand, but also carried a "verbal message" from Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is as interested in a nuclear-free Korean peninsula as President Bush is.
Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Tuesday: "If North Korea really returns to the talks swiftly, it should be welcomed, but its return "should be unconditional." Mr Machimura also urged China to do more to convince North Korea to come back to the negotiating table.
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the US was ready to renew talks but without any preconditions.
Only South Korea responded positively to North Korea's announcement.
Speaking before the National Assembly's Unification, Foreign Affairs and Commerce Committee, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said that "while the North Korean Foreign Ministry's February 10 statement focused on not attending the talks, the remarks this time around appear to focus on attending themthough conditions are attached."
Still Mr Ban called "a positive message" North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's remarks that his country will return to six-party talks on its nuclear program "if the conditions are mature."
However, Seoul's more open attitude towards Pyongyang has not been welcomed in Tokyo, according to Japanese daily Asahi. Japanese Foreign Minister said: "We would like to warn South Korea against having an overly indulgent attitude [towards the North], but we do not want to create any friction between Japan, South Korea and the US".
Dividing the three allies is in fact what North Korea wants, but it can hardly expect to get it. In fact, the Americans, the Japanese and the South Koreans are scheduled to meet tomorrow in a three-way summit to discuss the North Korean issue.
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12/02/2016 15:14
17/06/2005
