Firm stances taken at nuclear talks on North Korea

By John Pomfret, Washington Post, 8/28/2003

BEIJING -- The United States and North Korea staked out uncompromising positions yesterday as the two countries met for the first time since April for talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly demanded that North Korea unconditionally abandon its nuclear weapons program while Kim Yong-il, North Korea's vice foreign minister, warned that unless Washington agrees to a nonaggression treaty with Pyongyang, it would continue building a nuclear deterrent, said sources who participated in the talks.

The rigid positions, which came as no surprise to participants, were mapped out as the two sides met with representatives from four other nations on the first day of talks in Beijing on the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Russia's envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, speaking to the Russian Interfax news agency, called the negotiations fragile and warned that if the talks collapsed, the crisis could degenerate into a "hot conflict," triggered by US attempts to slap sanctions on North Korea, which Pyongyang would view as an act of war.

A Japanese foreign ministry official was somewhat less alarmist. "We are neutral," he told reporters after the first of two days of planned talks. "We have not made any assessment." Asked whether the North Koreans were sincere, the official said: "That is a very good question. I'm asking that question myself."

The talks between North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China, and Russia are aimed at defusing a standoff that began last October, when the Bush administration announced that North Korean negotiators had revealed the existence of a secret nuclear weapons program. The Bush administration had already branded North Korea part of the "axis of evil," which included Iran and prewar Iraq. The United States, North Korea, and China held talks in Beijing in April, but those ended inconclusively.

Following that meeting, the United States demanded that any further negotiations be conducted in a multilateral setting. Under pressure from China, North Korea agreed to return to the table, but only if it could be assured of a one-on-one meeting with the United States during the talks.

North Korea got that meeting yesterday afternoon when, following the whole-group session, US negotiators huddled for about 30 minutes with their North Korean counterparts in a corner of a large room at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in western Beijing, participants at the talks said.

In his statement at the whole-group session, Kelly demanded that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons program in a "complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner," according to participants. Such a move, he said, would be a precondition for any action on the US side to guarantee North Korea's security.

For his part, Kim demanded a nonaggression treaty, echoing a commentary yesterday in the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's official newspaper.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has said repeatedly that the Bush administration has no intention of attacking North Korea and would be prepared to put it in writing. But the administration does not want to tie its hands by signing a formal treaty or nonaggression pact requested by the Pyongyang government.

Washington fears that the North Korean government, known for using diplomats and state-run companies as drug couriers and purveyors of counterfeit currency, could provide nuclear weapons technology to terrorists. Some Bush administration officials have said they do not believe the regime of Kim Jong Il has any intention of abandoning its nuclear program, no matter what Washington does. They contend that North Korea has already violated one agreement to stop its nuclear program -- a 1994 deal struck with the Clinton administration. While it is talking with North Korea in Beijing, the Bush administration is spearheading the Proliferation Security Initiative, a coalition of 11 nations that would seek to weave a naval net around North Korea to stop it from exporting any weapons of mass destruction or related technology. The United States is also considering asking the UN Security Council to slap economic sanctions on the North's already moribund economy.

For its part, China worries that a nuclear North Korea could prompt Japan to remilitarize and could lead to nuclear proliferation to South Korea and even Taiwan. Japan worries that a nuclear-armed North Korea would be most liable to target Japan.

Both Japan and the United States raised the issue of North Korean abductions of Japanese nationals, and Kelly raised allegations of North Korea's alleged counterfeiting of US currency and its suspected production and trafficking of narcotics, participants said.

During the 1970s and 1980s, North Korea kidnapped dozens of Japanese nationals because it needed people to teach Japanese and modern customs. North Korea allowed five abduction victims to return home last year but did not let their families leave North Korea.

A Chinese official said there was some concern among his government that the Bush administration's position had hardened to the point where compromise might be difficult. He pointed to the recent resignation of Charles "Jack" Pritchard, the administration's special envoy for negotiations with North Korea, who had advocated a somewhat more conciliatory approach than the one now popular with the White House.