Talks pressing North Korea to abandon its nuclear-arms ambitions limped into a fourth day on Thursday, with dim hope of progress in a disarmament deal that would be a prize for the outgoing Bush administration.
Having coaxed North Korea to partly disable its Yongbyon nuclear complex this year in a disarmament-for-aid deal, envoys from five states have been asking the wary and impoverished state to accept a protocol for checking its nuclear declaration.
Agreement on verification would open the way to dismantling North Korea’s nuclear-arms capacity and count as a welcome diplomatic trophy for United States President George Bush before he gives way to president-elect Barack Obama in January.
But the chief US negotiator, Christopher Hill, said there was no sign of agreement after three days of the latest talks. He said the impasse reflected secretive North Korea’s unwillingness to put verification commitments in writing.
”Obviously we would like to see progress made on this verification protocol, and so far we haven’t seen that,” he told reporters. ”The North Koreans don’t want to put into writing what they are willing to put into words.”
The stand-off would continue at least until Obama settles into the White House, said Peter Beck, an expert on the two Koreas at American University in Washington, DC.
”The headwinds were especially strong going into these talks because we have been dealing with the government change in the US and the potential regime change in North Korea,” said Beck, referring to reports suggesting the North’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-il, has been sick, possibly after a heart attack.
”At some point, the North Koreans will try to provoke a crisis of some kind to make sure they have the Obama administration’s attention. But for now, I think they will maintain a holding pattern and see what is coming in Washington.”
Bush denounced North Korea as belonging to an ”axis of evil”, alongside Iran and Iraq, but later he strongly backed Hill’s efforts to strike a disarmament deal with the North.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the negotiators would gather for more six-way talks on Thursday. But as he prepared to join other negotiators at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse, Hill said he was unsure of the format.
The six-party talks, begun in 2003, bring together North and South Korea, host China, the United States, Japan and Russia. They took on fresh urgency after Pyongyang held its first nuclear test explosion in October 2006, but have made fitful progress in curtailing its atomic ambitions.
North Korea has refused proposals to allow inspectors to take nuclear samples to test its declaration, said South Korea envoy Kim Sook, Kyodo news agency reported.
Overnight in Washington, US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack did not rule out putting North Korea back on a list of states accused of sponsoring terrorism.
”I suppose these things are always possible,” he told a news briefing. ”…it’s based on behaviour. And we’ll see what behaviour North Korea engages in.”
But Beck, the Korea expert, saw little scope for the Bush administration to apply such punishment.
”Even if they had effective sticks, there really isn’t any time to use them,” he said. ”I don’t think he [Bush] wants to hand over yet another crisis for Obama.” — Reuters