Koreas incline to multilateral talks
Pyongyang and Seoul have agreed to pursue ‘appropriate talks’ in a bid to secure peaceful closure to North Korea’s willingness to acquire nuclear weapons, a joint statement said.
The statement was published at the end of the four-day long 11th round of ministerial discussions between the neighbouring countries.
‘Appropriate talks’ may entail a re-jigging of the formula for multilateral talks proposed by the US.
The US wants itself, both Koreas, ally China, Japan and Russia to find a way beyond the nuclear standoff.
But Pyongyang has shown some ambivalence on the issue. On Thursday, a delegate said North Korea was ready for both war and dialogue.
Both countries declared they would hold a sixth round of economic talks in Seoul from August 26 to August 29 and the 12th round of ministerial talks in Pyongyang between October 14-17.
North Korea, which sits uncomfortably on President Bush’s ‘axis of evil”, insisted previously it would only discuss matters with the US and would want food aid and investment tied to the deal.
Reclusive communist state North Korea admitted, under international pressure, to reactivating its nuclear weapons programme in October last year, stating it had begun to make enriched uranium.
Separately, the US said Friday it had evidence that North Korea had begun to reprocess spent nuclear fuel rods at its Yongbyon facility.
The evidence: krypton 85, a reprocessing product, had been detected in air samples taken nearby, the US government said.
Krypton 85 is released into the atmosphere when rods are reprocessed into weapons grade plutonium.
According to US intelligence, Pyongyang already possesses two or three nuclear weapons and the 8,000 fuel rods at the Yongbyon facility could provide sufficient plutonium for six to 12 nuclear weapons.
