The leaders of South Korea and the United States will discuss the general principle of how to generate a breakthrough in the long-stalled six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear arms program during their summit this week, a senior South Korean official said Wednesday.
Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan admitted to the difficulty of predicting whether the talks will be revived, with both Washington and Pyongyang digging in their heels.
"It is hard to find common ground between the positions of North Korea and the U.S.," Yu said at a press briefing.
The U.S. has maintained that it will talk bilaterally with the North only in the context of the six-way talks, while Pyongyang calls for the lifting of Washington's freeze of a Macau bank that is alleged to have supported the communist state's counterfeiting of U.S. dollars, Yu pointed out.
"The task facing us is to generate a breakthrough through consultations among related nations and persuade the North back to the table. The presidents of South Korea and the U.S. will discuss the big principle for it," he said. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush are to hold a summit in Washington on Thursday (local time), the sixth between them.
The summit comes amid reports of widening cracks between the two allies over how to deal with Pyongyang.
The gap appears to be widening since North Korea's widely condemned missile launches in July. The U.S. is reportedly about to roll out a package of sanctions on the North, but South Korea cautions against putting too much pressure on Pyongyang.
The efficacy of the six-way talks have been increasingly called into question, as they have been dormant for nearly a year.
Local newspapers said that the U.S. ran out of patience and decided to give up efforts for dialogue with Pyongyang.
They added that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, Washington's top nuclear envoy, informed Seoul of the decision.
But the vice foreign minister denied the reports as groundless.
"Those reports are untrue. Assistant Secretary Hill reaffirmed Washington's commitment to efforts for the resumption of the six-way talks," he said.
Yu also played down Roh's planned meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, saying it is a customary event, not aimed at talking about the U.S. sanctions on North Korea. The Treasury Department is spearheading moves to impose sanctions on Pyongyang for its alleged financial crimes, including counterfeiting. "It is going too far to say the U.S. official will pay a courtesy call on President Roh to discuss the sanction issue," he said.
SeouL, Sept. 13 (Yonhap News)
S. Korea, U.S. to discuss guiding principle for six-way talks in summit |
