US, SKorea coordinate ahead of nuclear talks
(AP) Updated: 2006-11-07 13:22
SEOUL, South Korea -- US and South Korean diplomats coordinated strategy
Tuesday for revived talks with North Korea, but there was no sign that Seoul
would join in Washington's tough measures against North Korea for its atomic
weapons test.
"Let me confess that many challenges are ahead of us. We
need confidence in our alliance," South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Yu
Myung-hwan said at the start of a meeting with Nicholas Burns, US undersecretary
of state for political affairs. "Our relationship is very important to
the United States," Burns said.
North Korea agreed last week to end its
yearlong boycott of the negotiations that include China, Japan, South Korea,
Russia and the US in the first sign of a relaxation of tensions after
Pyongyang's October 9 nuclear test.
Yu told reporters that the talks
were expected to be held in late November or early December. No specific date
has been set for the negotiations, which have previously been hosted by Beijing.
"We look forward to the resumption of the six-party talks," Burns said
after the meeting. Robert Joseph, US undersecretary of state for arms
control and international security, who is traveling together with Burns, held
separate talks with Park In-kook, a deputy foreign minister.
Joseph said
afterward that the meeting focused on the "importance of full implementation" of
a UN sanctions resolution adopted to punish North Korea for its first-ever
nuclear test.
"We've had very useful, very productive discussions," he
said, declining to give further details.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry
said Joseph wasn't originally planning to come to Seoul, but his itinerary was
changed at the last minute. Local media have interpreted that as an indication
that Washington wants to pressure Seoul to vigorously implement UN sanctions on
the North.
South Korea has been struggling to strike a delicate balance
between its obligations to punish the North under the UN sanctions resolution
and concerns that aggravating its volatile neighbour could destabilize the
region. South Korea has been noncommittal to a US request to expand its role in
a US-led international program aimed at interdicting shipments of weapons of
mass destruction.
North Korea is a primary target of the US-led
Proliferation Security Initiative. Seoul, which has participated in the program
only as an observer, is concerned stopping and searching North Korean ships may
lead to clashes with the North.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said
Monday that efforts to get rid of North Korea's nuclear program shouldn't lead
to a fresh conflict on the divide peninsula.
In Tokyo, the US diplomats
agreed with Japanese officials to seek a meeting of all five dialogue partners
of North Korea on the sidelines of this month's summit of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum in Vietnam.
The two sides also called for
concrete results from future six-party talks on their demands that North Korea
give up its quest for a nuclear weapon and allow outside verification that it is
complying with such a pledge.
The US officials were to head to Beijing
later Tuesday for meetings with Chinese and Russian
officials.
|
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours |
|
|
|