Pyongyang in new period of détente
Reclusive communist state North Korea told the US yesterday it was willing to freeze its nuclear weapons programme if the Bush administration embraced “corresponding measures”.
Pyongyang wants the US to drop its “hostile” policy towards the country and deliver economic and humanitarian aid.
Six-nation talks began this week in Beijing aimed at halting Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
Officials from China, the US, Russia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea are taking part in the meetings.
The diplomatic nuclear crisis erupted on the peninsula in October 2002 when the US said North Korea had admitted to enriching uranium, a violation of the 1994 nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Yesterday, North Korea – one of George Bush’s “axis of evil” states – slammed the US for maintaining “hostile” policies against the impoverished country.
But US secretary of state Colin Powell said the results of the talks had been positive: “There is a positive attitude.”
Hyun Hak Bong, a spokesman for the North Korean delegation, said: “Despite our flexible stance, the US, in an obsolete fashion, insists that we first abandon our nuclear programme.
“They say they can only address our requests once we’ve given up all plans including our peaceful nuclear activities.”
Earlier in the week, high ranking US and North Korean officials met on the fringes of the talks in a rare diplomatic exchange.
