Friday, 18 February 2005By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL - The newly appointed lead U.S. negotiator to North Korean nuclear disarmament talks has called
Pyongyang's pursuit of atomic weapons a dead end and urged the reclusive state to return to the bargaining table.
U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill and South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon were
both in Beijing on Thursday for separate talks on the North Korean nuclear issue with Pyongyang's main benefactor,
China.
Song asked China to help bring North Korea back to the table.
The diplomatic flurry precedes a trip to North Korea on Saturday by senior Chinese Communist party official Wang
Jiarui -- an apparent attempt to salvage the talks.
In Hill's first substantive comments since returning from Beijing, he said on Friday North Korea had made a huge
mistake in pursuing nuclear weapons because its economy had suffered and relations with leading powers had
worsened.
"Holding nuclear weapons is a dead end for North Korea. They cannot make progress if they continue on this road,"
Hill said.
Pyongyang last week said explicitly for the first time it had nuclear weapons, arguing it needed them to deter what it
saw as an increasingly hostile policy from the United States.
It also announced it was pulling out of six-party talks with South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
"The threat to the DPRK (North Korea) comes from their inability to develop a successful economy. These
programmes have cost them greatly and contributed to their economic decline," Hill said.
He declined to comment in detail about his meetings in Beijing, but echoed China's stand, saying the United States
was committed to finding a diplomatic solution.
"We are absolutely dedicated to make this process work," he said. "There was absolute agreement on the need for
North Korea to come back to the process."
BARGAINING THROUGH BEIJING
U.S. officials, while grateful to Beijing for having coaxed the reclusive country to the negotiating table three times,
have increasingly faulted the Chinese privately for failing to exert even more influence.
The six parties have met three times in Beijing. A fourth round of talks planned for September 2004 never
materialised, with Pyongyang saying Washington must first drop its hostile policy.
While Hill spoke at length about the six-party talks after returning to Seoul, South Korean officials were tight-lipped
about their meetings in Beijing.
"South Korea asked China to urge North Korea to return to the talks as soon as possible, upon the occasion of
Wang's trip to the North," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Kyu-hyung said.
Hill and Song did not hold talks in Beijing.
North Korea has been playing a nuclear card to win diplomatic and economic benefits since the standoff emerged in
October 2002 after Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to a secret programme to enrich uranium in violation of
a 1994 accord.
Pyongyang has since denied having such a programme beyond its known plutonium plant.
North Korea seeks direct negotiations with the United States, which Washington rejects, although U.S. officials have
held open the possibility of direct talks within the six-party framework.
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Friday, 18 February 2005
Reuters via Swissinfo
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