North Korea Demands U.S. Security Pledge to Give up Nuclear Program: Carter
North Korea Demands U.S. Security Pledge to Give up Nuclear Program: Carter
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Former U.S. President Carter on Wednesday said North Korea would not consider shuttering its nuclear program without a security pledge from the United States, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, April 26).
http://www.transasianaxis.com/vb/../...55_image_0.jpg (Apr. 27) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, shown arriving for a press conference in Beijing on Monday, on Wednesday said North Korea would require U.S. security assurances to consider abandoning its nuclear activities (Frederic Brown/Getty Images).
Carter and three former heads of state from Europe are in Pyongyang for a high-profile visit aimed at lowering inter-Korean tensions, evaluating the North Korean food crisis and searching for a breakthrough in the long-stalled six-party nuclear talks.
On Wednesday, Carter and the other global "Elders" met with the head of North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament. Though Kim Jong Il has exercised near absolute rule over North Korea for years, Kim Yong Nam is the ceremonial head of state.
"We are hearing consistently ... that the North wants to improve relations with America and is prepared to talk without preconditions to both the U.S. and South Korea on any subject," Carter wrote in a web post to The Elders' website.
"The sticking point -- and it's a big one -- is that they won't give up their nuclear program without some kind of security guarantee from the U.S.," the former president wrote.
Carter and other visiting dignitaries also convened with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun on Tuesday. It is not yet known if they will secure a meeting with Kim Jong Il or his youngest son and anticipated successor, Kim Jong Un (Simon Martin, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, April 27).
Meanwhile, China and South Korea have addressed differences on the circumstances for resuming the long-stalled six-nation negotiations aimed at North Korean denuclearization, the Korea Herald reported on Tuesday.
Chinese nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei met with his South Korean equivalent, Wi Sung-lac, in Seoul. The two men "confirmed their governments' united position" that talks between the North and South on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program should take place before the dialogue is expanded to include the remaining six-party participants: China, Japan, Russia and the United States, a high-ranking official said.
"I believe the two countries are now together on the process of resuming dialogue," the unidentified official said. Wi made it clear that Seoul remains "fully ready to hold talks" with Pyongyang, he added.
China recently offered a plan for resuming the multilateral negotiations that begins first with bilateral talks between the North and South and then between Pyongyang and Washington. It remains to be seen whether the plan would find favor in North Korea, which has generally tried to avoid direct nuclear talks with South Korea.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on Tuesday said he hoped to see a breakthrough reached on restarting the moribund denuclearization negotiations, which were last held in December 2008.
"I believe China has a clear understanding of our position on the issue and will not be representing one particular side," Kim said. "We have already expressed our willingness to hold bilateral denuclearization talks with the North and are waiting for a positive response" (Shin Hae-in, Korea Herald I, April 26).
Wu was anticipated to use his visit to call on Seoul to strengthen its diplomatic engagement with the North so that six-nation negotiations could be resumed, sources told the Herald.
Inter-Korean engagement has largely remained broken off following two attacks last year that killed 50 South Koreans (Shin Hae-in, Korea Herald II, April 26).
Separately, a North Korean patrol vessel on Tuesday sailed into its neighbor's waters but quickly crossed back after the South Korean navy responded with eight warning shots, Reuters reported.
A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said there had been no other untypical incidents from the North's armed forces and that it was not apparent why the patrol boat crossed the Northern Limit Line.
The Yonhap News Agency reported the ship could have been tracking nearby Chinese fishing vessels (Jack Kim, Reuters, April 27).
