BEIJING (AP) ― Senior U.S. and North Korean negotiators met Tuesday for hurriedly arranged talks on salvaging a sputtering process to eliminate the North's nuclear programs. The meeting between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan was their first since December.
In the two months since, fitful progress in ending North Korea's nuclear programs has coem to a virtual stop over differences on whether the North has made a full accounting of its nuclear facilities.
North Korea wants Washington to remove it from terrorism and other blacklists before making the disclosures.
Hill said he had "a good substantial discussion" with Kim inside North Korea's embassy in Beijing, but indicated no breakthroughs had been made.
Hill said he again urged North Korea to make a full disclosure of its nuclear programs to keep alive a year-old disarmament agreement.
"We had a discussion about what we think needs to be included in that. I think they understand our point of view, but we won't have a complete and correct declaration until we have a complete and correct declaration," he said at the Beijing airport before flying to Seoul.
"So I am not sure we yet have an understanding on that," Hill said.
Hill said a full declaration should include uranium enrichment and Pyongyang's relations with Syria, to which it has been accused of providing nuclear assistance. Damascus denies it has an undeclared atomic program, and North Korea has said it was not involved in any such project.
The wrangling is the latest in nearly five years of tortuous diplomacy over North Korea's nuclear programs, during which it exploded a nuclear device only to later agree to abandon the programs.
A February 2007 agreement and a follow-up pact in October ― endorsed by China, Japan, Russia and South Korea as well as the United States and North Korea ― promised the North energy and other assistance in return for relinquishing its nuclear programs. It also committed Washington to begin removing trade sanctions and the terrorism designation.
South Korea said Tuesday that 2,830 tons of steel will be shipped to North Korea on Friday as part of promised aid under the disarmament agreements. The shipment is about a 10th of what the South Korean government will send to North Korea before June, the South's Unification Ministry said.
While it has shut and begun dismantling its main nuclear facility as the agreement called for, North Korea missed a year-end deadline for disclosing all its nuclear programs. In recent weeks, it has shown signs of slowing down its disarmament. At the same time, with President George W. Bush leaving office in a year, Washington has shown added urgency about North Korea.
"This administration is running out of time," said Jonathan Pollack, a Korea watcher at the U.S. Naval War College. "This was one of the few things we could say that the Bush administration could cite as a possible accomplishment of one kind or another by the end of the year. But it's looking tough, barring a sudden breakthrough."
Adding urgency to Hill's mission, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit the region next week, stopping in Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul, where she is to attend the inauguration of South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak.
Hill said he would also meet China's nuclear envoy in Tokyo later this week in a bid to push the process forward.
"We're going to work very hard on it in the coming days and week. I think the Chinese are also very interested in doing that."
閉じて、求められた協定として主な核施設を解体し始めましたが、北朝鮮はすべての核開発計画を明らかにするための年末の締め切りを逃しました。ここ数週間に、それは武装解除を減速させる兆候を示しました。 同時に、ジョージ W. ブッシュ大統領が1年後に公職を退いていて、米国政府は北朝鮮に関して加えられた緊急を示しました。
