米朝 事前に課題整理メモ作成

北朝鮮の核問題をめぐる６か国協議に関連して、先月ベルリンで行われたアメリカと北朝鮮の協議で、核の放棄に向けて北朝鮮が取るべき行動やエネルギーや経済支援など、ほかの５か国が北朝鮮と協議すべき課題を整理したメモを作成していたことが、外交筋の話でわかりました。

それによりますと、メモには核関連施設の稼働停止から最終的な核放棄に至るまで、北朝鮮が核の放棄に向けて今後取るべき段階的な措置を並べる一方、エネルギーや経済支援、日米との関係正常化など、ほかの５か国が北朝鮮と協議すべき課題が記されているということです。ただ、このメモには期限は記されておらず、協議を行ったアメリカのヒル国務次官補や北朝鮮のキム・ケグァン外務次官の署名もないということです。このため、外交筋は「課題を整理したメモで合意事項ではない。このメモによって協議が拘束されることはない」としていますが、ベルリンでの協議のあと、北朝鮮は「一定の合意が達成された」という談話を出していることから、今回の協議では、このメモの内容に沿って協議が進展する可能性があるという見方が出ています。

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解決を願うつどい 失踪者調査会、荒木代表招き－－米子 ／鳥取

北朝鮮による拉致被害者に認定された米子市の松本京子さん（拉致当時２９歳）の同級生や会社の同僚らが１０日、「拉致問題の早期解決を願うつどい」を同市末広町の米子コンベンションセンターで開く。拉致問題への関心を高めてほしいとの願いを込め、特定失踪（しっそう）者問題調査会の荒木和博代表を招いた集会で、被害者の横田めぐみさんや京子さんらの写真展（１０～１５日）もある。いずれも入場無料。
　京子さんは昨年１１月２０日、政府が拉致被害者に認定。「つどい」は、京子さんの同級生らでつくる実行委員会が、県の委託事業として計画した。
　荒木代表が「北朝鮮と人権」のテーマで講演した後、京子さんの兄孟（はじめ）さん（６０）、安田寿朗弁護士、同調査会の妹原仁常務らによるシンポジウムを行う。写真展は、拉致の可能性がある県内３人を含む写真パネル約５０点を展示。
　孟さんは「拉致問題を身近に考える機会」と話し、安田弁護士も「北朝鮮との政府間交渉だけでなく、世論が後押しすることが大切」と参加を呼び掛けている。【小松原弘人】

Yahoo!ニュース - 毎日新聞 - 北朝鮮・拉致問題：解決を願うつどい　失踪者調査会、荒木代表招き－－米子　／鳥取

North Korea Talks to Resume in Beijing

BEIJING, Feb. 7 ― The long-stalled six-way talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program will resume here Thursday amid tentative signs that a breakthrough may be in the offing, in a diplomatic process that seemed shattered four months ago when North Korea tested its first nuclear bomb.

Christopher R. Hill, the chief American negotiator for the talks, arrived in Beijing today and held separate meetings with Chinese and Russian diplomats. Mr. Hill has been shuttling around the world, meeting with envoys from North Korea and other countries, in an effort to get the talks moving.

“We all share ambitions for this round,” Mr. Hill said to reporters as he arrived at his hotel this evening. “We want to make a good start, a good step forward.”

Mr. Hill is essentially trying to return the process to where it stood in September 2005, when North Korea agreed to end its nuclear weapons program in return for security, economic and energy benefits, in a broad draft accord.

Even then, analysts said that the unresolved differences between the United States and North Korea made a final agreement far from a sure thing. Talks on how to implement the agreement broke down after a few weeks, and North Korea walked away. Then it defied international warnings by testing a nuclear weapon last October.

At a short public appearance at the Beijing airport earlier today, Mr. Hill was careful to minimize expectations for the talks this week. “I want to emphasize that the real success is when we complete the September ’05 agreement,” he said. “Not just when we start the ’05 agreement, but when we finish it. So we’re not going to finish that this week ― we’ll just maybe take a good first step.”

The six-nation talks ― which include China, Russia, Japan and South Korea as well as the United States and North Korea ― were first held more than three years ago, and have since met in several rounds in Beijing. But they have yielded little tangible progress. This week’s round is to be held at a government guest house in Beijing, and is likely to continue into the weekend.

North Korea has seemed in recent weeks to be signaling a greater willingness to bargain and to be specific about what it wants. Last weekend, two American envoys returning from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang said the communist regime there was prepared to disable its main nuclear reactor in Yongbyon in exchange for assured supplies of electricity and oil from its neighbors.

North Korea also told the envoys that it wanted Washington to lift financial sanctions against it, and to remove it from a list of states regarded as sponsors of terrorism.

The two envoys ― Joel Wit, who was involved in North Korean issues as a Clinton administration official, and David Albright, an expert on nuclear arms, first described the North Korean position to the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, last Saturday as they passed through the Beijing airport.

Mr. Hill, who is assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has spent much of 2007 traveling in hopes of building a consensus for a deal. Last month, he and the top North Korean envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, met directly in Berlin, the first between high-level American and North Korean officials to be held outside Beijing. Mr. Hill described those talks as “substantive,” and has expressed cautious optimism throughout his travels.

From the North Korean perspective, one sticking point is how much ground Washington is willing to give on its financial sanctions. In late 2005, Washington accused Banco Delta Asia, a financial institution in the Chinese territory of Macau, of laundering counterfeit dollars printed in North Korea as a way to finance drug trafficking and other illegal activities. The United States then froze $24 million in North Korean assets and effectively shut North Korea out of the international financial system.

The Pyongyang regime was incensed by the sanctions and has demanded the release the $24 million. Last week, an American treasury official met in Beijing for two days with North Korean diplomats to discuss the Banco Delta Asia situation.

Brian Bridges, a professor of politics at Ling An University in Hong Kong, said that last week’s Beijing meeting appeared to end without a breakthrough, though he noted some speculation that the United States may agree to a compromise that would declare a portion of the frozen Banco Delta Asia money “clean.” Mr. Bridges said he thought that this week’s talks may, at best, set up working groups for discussing individual issues, like denuclearization or the financial sanctions.

But he said that achieving more sweeping progress was unlikely. “I’m not too optimistic,” he said. “I don’t think there is going to be a major breakthrough.”

North Korea Talks to Resume in Beijing - New York Times