North says ‘no’ to nuclear talks

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North says ‘no’ to nuclear talks

PYEONGYANG ― North Korea continued to stonewall in the second day of the inter-Korean ministerial conference yesterday, refusing to discuss its announcement that it had nuclear weapons. The South Korean delegates, however, moved to other topics, taking up issues of economic cooperation and civilian exchange programs for separated family members.
The two sides met in a plenary session Monday morning that was cut short after less than an hour with no signs of progress on the nuclear issue. South Korea’s delegation head, Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, demanded to know what the North’s nuclear weapons intentions were. He noted a string of earlier statements from the North that said Pyeongyang had no intention of developing nuclear weapons and that its nuclear program was designed for power generation. A nuclear North Korea was absolutely unacceptable, Mr. Jeong said.
The North’s chief delegate, Kim Ryong-song, said his country wanted to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully. But he reiterated that South Korea has no place in the discussions on the issue. “It is strictly between North Korea and the United States,” he said.
Mr. Jeong, in turn, cited the1992 North-South Joint Declaration on Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as backing Seoul’s insistence that it have a say in the negotiations.
A Unification Ministry official and Seoul delegation spokesman, Shin Un-sang, said the abbreviated schedule forced Seoul to move on to other topics. The last round of ministerial talks in Seoul lasted four days; these talks are three days long. But unless there is substantive discussion of the North Korean nuclear problem, Mr. Shin said, and unless there is some progress reflected in a joint statement following the meeting, the talks are likely to end in failure.
Separately, the foreign minister said he will try to establish diplomatic channels with the North as part of efforts to resolve the nuclear crisis. Until now, such contacts have mainly been the preserve of the Unification Ministry. He was briefing the president on the ministry’s policy plans.


by Joint Press Corps / Kim Young-sae
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