No Six-Party Talks Until 2007
by Richardson ~ December 6th, 2006. Filed under: Nuclear Proliferation, Six-Party Talks.The United States has offered a detailed package of economic and energy assistance in exchange for North Korea’s giving up nuclear weapons and technology, according to American officials.
But the offer… would hinge on North Korea’s agreeing to begin dismantling some of the equipment it is using to expand its nuclear arsenal, even before returning to negotiations.
It is unclear whether North Korea will accept the offer, which is more specific… than a vaguely worded statement of principles that the North signed in September 2005, a year before its first nuclear test.
And from Kyodo:
A North Korean diplomatic source told the Interfax news agency Wednesday that six-way talks on North Korea’s nuclear program cannot restart this year or in the foreseeable future due to “unacceptable” conditions the United States had set.
[…]
“As a result, the renewal of the negotiation process in December 2006 is impossible, and — if there is no change in the United States’ position — in the foreseeable future too,” Interfax said in a report from Hong Kong.
But wait, there’s this from the AP:
North Korea may offer to dismantle its nuclear weapons program if the United States removes its nuclear weapons from South Korea and other countries in the region, a senior North Korean diplomat said Wednesday, the Interfax news agency reported.
“In exchange for its nuclear disarmament, it (North Korea) will demand the withdrawal of the U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea and other countries of the region,” Interfax quoted the unnamed official as saying.
I’ll guess that the “other countries” is the key to that demand, since there have been no U.S. nukes in South Korea since 1992. If that means Japan, it’s a non-issue as there are no U.S. nukes there either. If that means Guam, problem, as that’s U.S. territory. Maybe a nice North Korean official will explain what “other countries” means, exactly.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
They probably do mean South Korea and Japan. We don’t have nukes in either of those countries, and they know it, but they can demand we withdraw them, and then say we are lying when we tell them we don’t have them, stomp out of the talks and then return to the UN again and claim they need their nukes for defense because “America has nukes in S. Korea and Japan and won’t withdraw them - we tried, but there’s no negotiating with these people.”