US, Japan turn down China proposal to resume N Korea nuke talks

TOKYO, October 25 (Itar-Tass) - The United States and Japan have
rejected China's proposal on an early resumption of the six-party talks on
the North Korean nuclear programme and making them regular. The Kyodo news
agency reported on Monday with reference to sources in the American
capital that Washington and Tokyo demand from Pyongyang specific
guarantees that it is really ready to eliminate its nuclear potential, and
not just playing for time in order to get political and economic
advantages.
According to the report, China's special envoy on Korean Peninsula
affairs has proposed holding six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear
programmes basically on a monthly basis once the stalled dialogue resumes,
sources close to the talks said Sunday. But Japan and the United States,
which remain cautious about restarting the talks due to the North's
alleged sinking of a South Korean warship in March, have rejected the host
country's proposal. They say it is too early to discuss ways to advance
the talks while the diplomatic circumstances for their resumption are
lacking, the sources said. The North Korean side has denied its
involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan corvette.
The proposal, made by Wu Dawei, reflects Beijing's desire to prevent
another lengthy interruption of the talks, which have been suspended since
December 2008, in the event relations between North Korea and other
participants deteriorate again once the dialogue is resumed, they said,
according to Kyodo.
According to the sources, Wu made the proposal to Japan at the end of
August and to the United States in early September during his visits to
the countries. He apparently made the same proposal also to South Korea
during his visit in late August but Seoul's response is not known.
The move comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese
President Hu Jintao in late August that he wished to see an early
resumption of the talks to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula. North
Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan told Wu during his visit
to Beijing on October 15 his country is ready to reopen the talks.
Japan, South Korea and the United States, however, are reluctant to
resume the dialogue because they find it difficult to accept North Korea's
condition for rejoining them, namely the lifting of sanctions imposed on
the country by the UN Security Council. The three countries have demanded
North Korea accept its involvement in the fatal South Korean warship
sinking, which it has denied, and to take concrete steps toward
denuclearisation as conditions to resume the talks, Kyodo reported.
The six-party talks have been suspended since December 2008, when they
broke down over differences on ways to verify North Korea's nuclear
programmes. In a joint statement issued September 19, 2005, the six
parties - the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -
agreed on an aid package for North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang
"abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes."