U.S., North Korea Open Historic Talks

By EDITH M. LEDERER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 6, 2007; 4:19 AM

NEW YORK -- The United States and North Korea began landmark talks on establishing diplomatic relations, but a State Department official cautioned against high expectations during this week's meetings.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met for four hours Monday for talks and dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. They left without making any comments to reporters.

Kim and Hill are to meet again Tuesday amid rising expectations of improved U.S. relations with a country President Bush called part of an "axis of evil" five years ago, along with Iran and prewar Iraq.

This is the first U.S. visit by Kim, North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, since the international standoff over the North's nuclear ambitions flared in late 2002.

Under an agreement reached at six-nation talks in Beijing last month on the North's nuclear program, the U.S. and North Korea are supposed to open bilateral talks on establishing diplomatic ties.

The North, which tested a nuclear weapon last October, agreed to shut down its main nuclear reactor by mid-April as a step toward abandoning its nuclear program in exchange for aid.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack described this week's meetings as organizational, focused on setting up an agenda.

"I think that he (Hill) will talk to them about how the process might proceed regarding normalization," McCormack said, including taking North Korea off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and opening the way for a normal trading relationship with the U.S. for the first time.

Last month's deal has touched off strong criticism in Washington, especially among conservatives, who see it as rewarding North Korea for years of bad behavior.

Japan and South Korea, meanwhile, also took steps to improve relations with North Korea.

A senior aide to South Korea's president will visit North Korea this week, an official said Tuesday. South Korea's Yonhap news agency speculated that the purpose of the trip was to set up a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il but South Korean officials denied that a summit was in the works.

In Vietnam, meanwhile, envoys from Japan and North Korea met Tuesday ahead of two-day talks aimed at establishing relations and fulfilling pledges made in Beijing.

Japan's chief envoy Koichi Haraguchi said Japan wants to spend ample time discussing North Korea's history of abducting of Japanese citizens. North Korea wants Japan to atone for the 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula and wartime atrocities, including sex slavery of tens of thousands of Korean women.

Japan and North Korea have never had formal diplomatic ties.

Kim's first stop Monday was the Korea Society, a nonprofit organization that promotes greater understanding and cooperation between Americans and Koreans. He spent 4 1/2 hours with an array of academics and VIPs, including former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright.

"We had a very good and fruitful and friendly meeting," Albright told reporters.

A statement issued afterward said participants at the meeting, sponsored by the Korea Society and the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, discussed a range of U.S.-North Korean issues including normalization of relations "in a friendly and forthcoming atmosphere."

Kim arrived in New York late Friday and met over the weekend with South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo.

The first phase of North Korea's disarmament process under the Feb. 13 accord calls on North Korea to shut down its main nuclear reactor and allow U.N. inspectors back into the country within 60 days.

In return, it would receive aid equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from the other countries participating in the nuclear talks _ the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and Japan.

McCormack stressed that the process of normalization must proceed "step by step."

"It is going to have to be a process by which good faith actions are met in turn by good faith actions," he said. "We, of course, intend to abide by our commitments under the agreement. We'll see how the North Korean side lives up to its responsibilities."

The United States has had no diplomatic relations with North Korea since the country was created after World War II, when Korea was split into a communist-dominated North and a U.S.-backed capitalist South.

___

Associated Press Writer Sarah DiLorenzo contributed to this report.

U.S., North Korea Open Historic Talks - washingtonpost.com

米国務省、中国の人権状況を批判

　【ワシントン支局】米国務省は6日、2006年版の「世界人権報告」を発表した。中国政府の人権に対する姿勢について「引き続き劣悪で一部では悪化している」と批判。政治活動家やジャーナリスト、弁護士などへの監視強化や投獄が増えている、と指摘した。北朝鮮に関しては「世界で最も孤立した抑圧的な政権」と非難した。

　報告書は、中国政府がマスメディアへの規制やインターネットの検閲を強化していると指摘。囚人に対する拷問や自白の強制、強制労働などの人権侵害のほか、北朝鮮からの脱北者の強制送還も深刻な問題だと批判している。

　北朝鮮については、司法手続きを通さない処刑や拘束などが行われており、刑務所では女性の囚人が中絶を強制されたり、生まれた子供が殺されるなどの例も報告されているとしている。

　イラクに関しても、宗派間抗争の激化やテロの頻発などによって人権や民主化の前進が阻害されていると批判。日本については、女性や子供に対する暴力、セクシュアルハラスメント（性的嫌がらせ）、女性や少数民族への差別などの問題があると指摘している。 (01:22)

NIKKEI NET：主要ニュース

米、作業部会で「拉致問題」言及…ヒル次官補明かす

【ニューヨーク＝白川義和】米国と北朝鮮の国交正常化に関する６か国協議の作業部会は６日午前（日本時間７日未明）、ニューヨークのホテル内にある米国連大使公邸で２日目の協議に入る。
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　米国による北朝鮮のテロ支援国指定解除問題などをめぐって５日に続いて意見交換する。

　米国側は「指定解除には拉致問題の進展が必要」との立場で、首席代表のクリストファー・ヒル国務次官補（東アジア・太平洋担当）は６日朝、本紙などに対し、５日の協議で拉致問題をとり上げたことを明らかにした。

　一方、北朝鮮側は、「指定解除の作業開始は２月に採択された６か国協議の共同文書でも明記されている」として、早期解除を求めているとみられる。次回作業部会の北朝鮮開催も主張している模様だ。

　５日の協議では、ヒル次官補と金桂寛（キム・ケグァン）・北朝鮮外務次官が、夕食会を含めて４時間余り、自国の立場を伝えあった。ヒル次官補は６日朝、作業部会に先立ち、ニューヨーク市内で、「６か国協議の最近の進展と次の段階」をテーマに講演した。

米、作業部会で「拉致問題」言及…ヒル次官補明かす : 国際 : YOMIURI ONLINE（読売新聞）