Posted on 02/02/2007 5:31:51 AM PST by Schnucki
WASHINGTON : North Korea could agree to implement a "first tranche" of measures to end its nuclear weapons programme during the next round of six-nation talks in Bejing next week, the top US negotiator has said.
"What we hope to do in this round is to implement a first tranche of measures, which will be the beginning of the full implementation of the September (2005) agreement leading to full denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters on Thursday.
He said that the move "will be a substantial start" to the full denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and added that "there is a basis for making progress" at the talks beginning February 8.
Hill declined to elaborate on the measures but some experts said they could be linked to a freeze by Pyongyang on its nuclear activities in return for some benefits.
Under the 2005 deal, reached through an earlier series of six-party negotiations, North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for security guarantees, economic aid and improved relations with the United States.
But North Korea walked away from the agreement a month later in protest at the imposition of US financial sanctions against a Macau bank accused of money-laundering for the regime in Pyongyang.
As part of the deal that enticed North Korea back to negotiations last month, Washington agreed to discuss the sanctions imposed on Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in parallel with the resumed denuclearisation talks.
The last round of six-party negotiations ended in stalemate after North Korea, emboldened by its first-ever test of an atomic bomb in October last year, insisted that the US sanctions and broader UN measures imposed against the North in December be lifted.
US and North Korean officials ended a second round of discussions on a variety of financial issues on Thursday in Beijing but there was no breakthrough.
Aside from the United States and North Korea, the six-party talks include host China as well as Russia, Japan and South Korea.
Just hand over your nukes, destroy your missile and nuke installations, and everything's cool...
IOW, buried until after the '08 elections.
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