North Korea will be urged to adopt a step-by-step plan towards nuclear disarmament when the latest round of six-party talks begins on Wednesday, Japan’s chief negotiatior said after arriving in Beijing.
However with the first phase of the fifth round scheduled to last just three days before resuming later in the year, expectations were low that major progress will be made this week.
Progress would be “rather difficult” because big differences remain over how to implement an agreement reached at the last round in September, Chinese vice foreign minister Wu Dawei told journalists.
China, the two Koreas, the United States, the Russian Federation and Japan agreed in September to verifiably to scrap North Korea’s nuclear programs in exchange for energy assistance and other benefits.
However the United States has insisted that North Korea dismantle its nuclear programme immediately, while the Stalinist state has been holding out for benefits from Washington up front before surrendering its bargaining chip.
In particular, North Korea said after the September agreement that it would not dismantle its nuclear arsenal before the United States supplies it with a light-water atomic reactor to generate electricity.
The United States says North Korea must first disarm.
Japan’s chief negotiatior Kenichiro Sasae told reporters after arriving in Beijing on Tuesday that North Korea would be urged to adopt a phased approach to dismantling its nuclear weapons programme.
“We will study how to implement what we agreed at the last six-party round,” Sasae said.
“We believe it is necessary to achieve progress on the central question, that is how to proceed in concrete terms with nuclear disarmament, which was promised by North Korea.
“Japan for its part believes it is important to present a specific prospect leading to next steps.”
Sasae did not give details. The Japanese Asahi Shimbun newspaper said Japan, the United States and South Korea would propose a “road map” to the North under which it would give up its nuclear weapons in return for promised benefits.
The road map would include a timeline for ways for Pyongyang to verify it is giving up its nuclear programme, the paper said, citing South Korean diplomatic sources.
The newspaper said the road map would include a series of stages starting with North Korea confirming its nuclear programs are dismantled, freezing nuclear facilities and renouncing its nuclear programme.
In exchange for further benefits, Pyongyang would eventually need to return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and accept inspections by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency.
The United States and Japan accuse North Korea of violating a 1994 agreement under which a US-led consortium would have built two light water reactors in the impoverished state in return for nuclear disarmament.
The United States accused the North in 2002 of developing a secret uranium-enrichment programme. The North responded by throwing out weapons inspectors and leaving the NPT.
All the delegations to the talks except the US team led by Christopher Hill, had arrived in Beijing by mid-afternoon on Tuesday. Hill was due to land in the early evening.
The other delegations were holding various bilateral meetings on Tuesday.
North Korea’s lead negotiator divulged little on arrival.
“We are willing to make sincere efforts at this round of the talks to fulfil the spirit of the joint statement,” Xinhua news agency quoted Kim Gye-gwan as saying.
“The DPRK [North Korea] cherishes the joint statement formed in the previous round.”
In Seoul, South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun said the failure of the six-party talks was not an option, but said he had no new plans to divulge ahead of Wednesday’s talks.
“Though it may take some time, failure is inconceivable,” Roh said.
China has asked that the first phase of the next round ends by Friday so that diplomats can also attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea on November 18 and 19. – AFP