Nuclear talks resume amid cautious outlook

By Lee Chi-dong

BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- Veteran negotiators from North Korea and the five nations struggling to remove its nuclear arsenal resumed their formal talks here on Monday, downplaying prospects for progress.

This week's negotiations, the first in five months, will focus on producing a
deal outlining how to inspect Pyongyang's nuclear sites.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who chairs the six-way talks, said in his
opening speech that also high on agenda will be working out a timetable for
ending the second phase in the three-tier denuclearization process and
establishing a workable peace mechanism.
"First, verification; secondly, continuous implementation of the second phase
action plan; and thirdly the establishment of a peace and security mechanism in
Northeast Asia," Wu said when addressing the opening of the talks, according to
Xinhua News Agency.
"This meeting shoulders an important task to inherit the past and usher the talks
into the future," he added, noting that the talks are facing opportunities as
well as some "uncertain factors."
Heads of delegations from the two Koreas, China, the U.S., Russia, and Japan had
a flurry of preliminary bilateral and trilateral meetings before the opening of
the plenary session.
"We all know what we're supposed to get accomplished here ... and like all the
six-party meetings it'll be difficult negotiations," chief U.S. negotiator
Christopher Hill told reporters earlier in the day.
South Korean envoy Kim Sook also expressed pessimism over the upcoming talks.
"There are many formats for a deal, but the core contents discussed during the
trilateral meeting between South Korea, the U.S., and Japan should be included,"
Kim said, apparently referring to Washington's push for a set of scientific
methods including sampling in verifying Pyongyang's self-claimed details of its
nuclear inventory.
Kim had a one-on-one meeting with his North Korean counterpart a couple of hours
before the opening of the six-way talks.
"The two sides had comprehensive discussions on the issues of a verification
protocol, completing the second phase (of the denuclearization process), and
economic and energy assistance," Cho Yun-soo, spokesman for the South Korean
delegation, said.
"We emphasized the core part of the verification (of the North's recent nuclear
claims)," he said. "The North Korean side showed keen interest in energy aid."
South Korea chairs the working group for the provision of energy to the North
under a six-party deal reached last year.
In his first meeting with the North's envoy in five months, the South Korean
negotiator also emphasized the sincerity behind the Lee Myung-bak government's
policy of co-prosperity, according to Cho.
North Korea's Kim Kye-gwan, however, gave no specific response, only listening to
Kim Sook's comments, Cho said.
Inter-Korean ties were strained with the launch of the conservative Lee
administration in February, which pledged to get tough on the communist neighbor.
Their relations have worsened in recent weeks as the North has tightened its
border controls.