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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| US puts condition on North Korea peace treaty talks |
| 2006-05-18 |
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is open to discussions with North Korea on a peace treaty at the same time as six-country talks on dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear programs, but it must first come back to the negotiating table, U.S. officials said on Thursday. Commenting on a report in The New York Times, two officials said the concurrent efforts had been under way for months. They played down the Times' report that the Bush administration was considering a new approach. But some experts said there seemed to be at least a slight change in U.S. emphasis designed to entice Pyongyang back into talks and keep Asian allies from blaming Washington for the moribund diplomacy. "The approach with North Korea has always been the same, which is, when North Korea comes back and participates in the six-party talks, then we can proceed," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. "Nothing happens until North Korea goes back and participates in the six-party talks. Dealing with the possibility of developing nuclear weapons, and to talk about any further steps is premature," he told reporters on Air Force One traveling with President George W. Bush to Yuma, Arizona. The New York Times said if Bush allows talks about a peace treaty to take place on a parallel track with six-nation talks on disarmament, it would "signal another major change of tactics" for the administration, which has been divided about how to deal with Pyongyang through most of Bush's tenure. North Korea has long demanded a peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean war. While officials denied a major shift, Jon Wolfstahl, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Reuters the U.S. position "opens up at least the option for a change in sequencing" negotiations. The administration initially insisted Pyongyang dismantle its nuclear programs before receiving any economic or political returns but has softened that position over time. A joint statement last September 19 by the six parties -- the United States, North Korea and South Korea, China, Russia and Japan -- foreshadowed talks on a broad range of issues, including a new peace treaty, within the context of the six-party process. In that statement, the North promised to give up its nuclear weapons, while other parties expressed a willingness to provide oil, energy aid and security guarantees. But the question of exactly when benefits might flow to Pyongyang has sharply divided the Bush administration. Just a day after the September 19 statement, the North made comments significantly undermining the deal. There have been no negotiations since an inconclusive session last November. South Korea and China have urged U.S. gestures that might bring Pyongyang back into the six-party process. Concurrent discussions on a peace treaty "is one of the few things the administration can offer that the North Koreans said they want but doesn't provide Pyongyang with material aid," Wolfstahl said. "It shows a recognition that they are not making progress (in curbing the North's nuclear programs) and they are losing the diplomatic game in East Asia. Increasingly, people see us as being as intransigent as North Korea," he added. In recent interviews with Reuters, two senior U.S. officials were very pessimistic about persuading North Korea to return to the table and said they did not expect any movement until after Bush leaves office, in 2009, at the earliest. The New York Times report surfaced as the United States and other major powers were engaged in efforts, so far fruitless, to persuade Iran to drop its planned nuclear program. The North Koreans "need to come back to the talks, engage in a constructive manner and demonstrate they have clearly made a strategic decision to give up their nuclear weapons," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. |
| Posted by:bgrebel |
| #3 Make sure no one on the US side is under 6'4, that goes double for the womens. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-05-18 17:47 |
| #2 Stop bootlegging Team America |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-05-18 16:44 |
| #1 No elevator shoes, no poofy hair, no lying about your golf game... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-05-18 16:39 |