Beijing talks may yield more than first expected

Pyeongyang’s “new bold offer” has put Seoul and Washington down to a review of last week’s three-nation talks in Beijing over North Korea’s nuclear problem, awakening them from the initial shock of the North’s claim that it possesses nuclear weapons and has reprocessed a significant stock of its spent nuclear fuel rods.
U.S. President George W. Bush agreed with Chinese President Hu Jintao in a weekend telephone conversation that diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue should continue. U.S. officials in Washington said the talks would be reviewed carefully to decide on a future course of action.
A Japanese diplomatic source said the Beijing talks should not be judged solely on the North Korean admission; it is difficult to comprehend the importance of the talks by solely looking at the admission. There are sufficient elements in what the North Koreans said in Beijing to suggest that the admission was part of a proposal, he said.
The National Security Council met over the weekend after Assistant U.S. Secretary of State James Kelly consulted with Seoul officials. Without conclusively accepting North Korea’s admission, the council agreed that North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons would be a grave violation of the North-South Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and other international agreements.
South Korea will continue to press for the dismantlement of the North Korean nuclear program, the Blue House deputy spokesman, Lee Ji-hyun, said. There will be a consideration of the North Korean proposal by South Korea, Japan and the Unites States through close consultations, she said.
South Korea, Japan and the United States are expected to convene a consultation meeting on North Korea, called the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group, in early May.

by Oh Young-hwan