Yoon says talks can face snag

Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan said yesterday that the possibility of a breakdown in the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear problem cannot be ruled out.
Briefing the National Assembly’s foreign relations committee on the talks that concluded Friday in Beijing, Mr. Yoon said the government would try to have a new round of negotiations begin as soon as possible.
The cautious assessment mirrored a foreign ministry report released to the committee which said if North Korea continued to threaten to pursue nuclear deterrence, there would be more negative sentiment in the United States and Japan about the talks.
But there also were positive developments from the talks, such as the North’s declaration that it did not intend to own nuclear weapons, the report said.
The United States also indicated that it would be holding more detailed discussions to address North Korea’s security concerns, it said.
Mr. Yoon appeared to deny that the six-point agreement announced by China’s top negotiator, Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, received much endorsement at the end of the three-day talks.
There was very little consultation among the countries on the points, he said, and there could have been differences on how each country interpreted them. But there was an overall consensus on the announcement, he said, and there was no objection to issuing the summary.

by Kim Young-sae