ID :
24225
Mon, 10/13/2008 - 18:54
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/24225
The shortlink copeid
Six-party talks to resume before U.S. election
SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Yonhap) -- The six parties involved in talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms program will take into account important political events, including the upcoming U.S. presidential election, in deciding when to resume the previously stalled negotiations, officials here said Monday.
The parties will fix the timing of a new round of talks "considering the
schedules for the Beijing summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting on Oct. 24-25 and the
U.S. presidential election on Nov. 4," the South Korean foreign ministry
spokesman Moon Tae-young told reporters.
"China, the chair of the six-party talks, hasn't made a specific proposal yet,"
Moon said.
Some diplomatic sources here have said the talks, involving the United States,
two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia, will likely reopen closely before or after
the ASEM summit to approve the recent deal between Washington and Pyongyang.
On Sunday, the United States decided to remove North Korea from its terrorism
list after the communist state agreed on a plan to verify its nuclear activities
declared under a six-party disarmament deal.
Pyongyang, in response, said it would resume disabling its plutonium-producing
nuclear plant and allow in inspectors.
In the latest talks held in July, North Korea agreed to complete disabling of its
nuclear facilities and its negotiating partners to send energy aid equivalent to
one million tons of heavy fuel oil by the end of October.
Negotiations, however, have been locked in a dispute over verifying Pyongyang's
nuclear declaration that it submitted to China in June as part of the deal signed
last year.
Pyongyang stopped disabling the Yongbyon nuclear plant in August and has taken
steps to restore the facilities in protest against Washington's refusal to take
Pyongyang off the terrorism blacklist until it agrees to a verification protocol.
Questioned if the agreed terms would be fulfilled by the deadline, Moon suggested
the possibility of a delay.
"There is a high possibility of a little delay from what has happened so far," he
said.
South Korea has no information on whether North Korea resumed the disablement
work as it announced on Sunday, the spokesman said.
The parties will fix the timing of a new round of talks "considering the
schedules for the Beijing summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting on Oct. 24-25 and the
U.S. presidential election on Nov. 4," the South Korean foreign ministry
spokesman Moon Tae-young told reporters.
"China, the chair of the six-party talks, hasn't made a specific proposal yet,"
Moon said.
Some diplomatic sources here have said the talks, involving the United States,
two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia, will likely reopen closely before or after
the ASEM summit to approve the recent deal between Washington and Pyongyang.
On Sunday, the United States decided to remove North Korea from its terrorism
list after the communist state agreed on a plan to verify its nuclear activities
declared under a six-party disarmament deal.
Pyongyang, in response, said it would resume disabling its plutonium-producing
nuclear plant and allow in inspectors.
In the latest talks held in July, North Korea agreed to complete disabling of its
nuclear facilities and its negotiating partners to send energy aid equivalent to
one million tons of heavy fuel oil by the end of October.
Negotiations, however, have been locked in a dispute over verifying Pyongyang's
nuclear declaration that it submitted to China in June as part of the deal signed
last year.
Pyongyang stopped disabling the Yongbyon nuclear plant in August and has taken
steps to restore the facilities in protest against Washington's refusal to take
Pyongyang off the terrorism blacklist until it agrees to a verification protocol.
Questioned if the agreed terms would be fulfilled by the deadline, Moon suggested
the possibility of a delay.
"There is a high possibility of a little delay from what has happened so far," he
said.
South Korea has no information on whether North Korea resumed the disablement
work as it announced on Sunday, the spokesman said.
