North says it sees no use in any more talks

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North says it sees no use in any more talks

Despite new denunciations from North Korea of the ongoing diplomacy to address the communist regime’s nuclear weapons program, South Korea, the United States and Japan will begin a push this week for another round of talks on the crisis.
Observers say the diplomatic initiative will face serious difficulty after North Korea bluntly dismissed the usefulness of further talks.
On Saturday, a day after the six-party talks on the North Korea’s nuclear ambitions ended in Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Pyeongyang declared: “We are no longer interested nor have expectations for the six-party talks,” referring to the participation of Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
The spokesman added the talks “reaffirmed more strongly that we have no other choice but to strengthen nuclear deterrence capability to maintain our sovereignty.”
The official spoke with the North Korean Central News Agency. He said the “United States’ claim that we must discuss missiles, conventional weapons and human rights for normalization of relationships retreats further from the earlier claim that the nuclear weapons be dismantled first.”
The North’s assessment stands in contrast to the milder views of other countries involved.
The U.S. chief delegate, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, called the talks a “productive start.
In Seoul, Yoon Young-kwan, minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on radio that “because North Korea and the United States took more flexible stances, we believe we can talk about specific methods [of resolving the North Korean nuclear problem] at the next talks.”
Mr. Yoon leaves Tuesday for the United States, where he’ll meet U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Yukio Takeuchi, vice foreign minister of Japan, arrives in the United States Thursday for more meetings on the issue.


by Kang Chan-ho
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