Posted on 02/07/2007 8:37:39 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BEIJING - North Korea is ready to discuss the initial steps of its nuclear disarmament, the country's main envoy said Thursday as he arrived for international talks on the communist nation's atomic weapons program.
"We are prepared to discuss first-stage measures," Kim Kye Gwan said after arriving in Beijing for the six-nation negotiations set to start later Thursday.
However, Kim said any moves by North Korea would be determined by the United States' attitude.
"We are going to make a judgment based on whether the United States will give up its hostile policy and come out toward peaceful coexistence," he said.
The latest nuclear standoff with the North started in late 2002 after Washington accused Pyongyang of having a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of a 1994 deal between the two countries. North Korea kicked out nuclear inspectors and restarted its main reactor, moves that culminated in the country's first atomic test detonation in October.
Although the U.S. and key North Korean allies China and Russia backed U.N. sanctions after the nuclear test, Washington has since engaged in a series of diplomatic overtures that have drawn praise from Pyongyang.
The main U.s. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, went to Germany last month to meet North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan, and the North later said the sides had reached an unspecified agreement. The specifics of what they discussed haven't been made public.
Washington also has held separate talks on financial restrictions it has placed on a Macau-based bank where the North held accounts, accusing it of complicity in the regime's alleged counterfeiting and money laundering. Blacklisting that bank has scared off other financial institutions from dealings with the North for fear of losing access to the U.S. market.
The North had earlier demanded the financial restrictions be lifted for it to disarm, and refused to talk about anything else at the last nuclear talks in December.
The lack of progress at the arms negotiations has raised the issue of the credibility of the talks. Since 2003, they have produced only a single agreement in September 2005 on principles for the North to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and pledges that Washington won't seek the regime's ouster.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso (L) welcomes Christopher Hill (R), US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, 06 February 2007. Christopher Hill has denied a Japanese press report that said he had secured a deal with North Korea in which Pyongyang had agreed to shut down a nuclear reactor in exchange for energy aid.(AFP/File/Kazuhiro Nogi)
You mean the way the Clinton administration had a nice, friendly attitude towards N Korea, and they broke the agreement and continued building their nuclear capabilities?
How stupid do they think we are?
Where is the infamous Madelaine Albright and Kim Jung Il picture?
A North Korean soldier guards tanks of flammable liquid at the bank of the Yalu River in the North Korean town of Sinuiju February 8, 2007. Six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme resume in Beijing on Thursday with the top U.S. envoy denying a Japanese media report that the isolated state had signed a deal with Washington. The Korean characters on the tank read 'No Naked Fire'. REUTERS/Adam Dean (NORTH KOREA)
Translation: How much of the US taxpayers money are you going to give us.
ROFLMAO! Why would the U.S. have a hostile attitude toward a country it's been at war with for the last half-century? What could possibly make us hostile, I mean, the NoKos are a murdering, nuclear blackmailing totalitarian regime that won't stay paid off--don't everyone love them sorta down-home, friendly folks?
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Bush's fault. Oh, this is a good thing?
Then you won't hear a thing from the MSM about it. Or only in a passing, matter of fact tone, at the end of the news cast and after they have "thoroughly" counted the deaths in Iraq ("one of Bush's other failures").
OK, I'm not hostile. And wasn't this problem solved by Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Madeline Albright? Gee, I guess my memory is faulty.
Bill Richardson will probably get the credit should anything come of this latest gyration.. he's only gone over there I don't know how many times..
Didn't they already try this line before
Yup, I lost count.. :-}
I think it is time to stand up to them with a very hard line - tell them put up or shut up. My position would be no-notice open inspections of their nuclear and missile installations anytime we want. The bank stays black-listed. Trade, we'll talk after we actually see you dismantling your nuclear program.
I'm sure they wouldn't take that seriously, and would storm out of the talks claiming we were being unreasonable, were not ready to seriously negotiate, etc. They'd probably threaten to continue their nuclear and missile programs. I'd call their bluff. I'd tell them look, your long-range Taepodong-2s are junk, you only started them to have something to trade away, we're calling your bluff. Go ahead, try to make them work. Your nuclear program isn't much better - one fizzle. Our missiles and warheads work just fine. You want to rattle sabers, go ahead, we've heard it all before from nations far more capable than you.
I've had enough of these {expletives} playing big fish in a little pond. I say we pay them the worst insult of all - ignore them as if they don't matter. Because compared to our other problems that we need to address, they don't.
what a bunch of horse manure...
this whole problem could be solved by Bush telling the Chicoms to get their dog, NK, back on the porch or not one container of their junk will be unloaded in San Pedro or anywhere else.
NK depends on the Chicoms and the Chicoms depend on exports.
How do you say "embargo" in Chinese & "blockade" in Korean?
Cheney/Steele 2008
I would bet good money that those two have some pictures they would not want the rest of us to see.
The financial handcuffs the US had placed on the Loon Kim regime hit them right where it needed.
Keep them in place until a comprehensive agreement is reached and PUT into place.
Oooooh! The dems are not going to be happy about that!!
Action from the North Koreans instead of more potential lies.
Square table or round table for the negotiations ???
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