Top nuclear envoys from South Korea and the United States on Wednesday discussed concrete ways to restart the six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear program, but the officials said they failed to reach an agreement.
Chun Yung-woo, Seoul's lead delegate to the disarmament talks, said the discussions were just the beginning and related consultations will continue.
Chun's meeting here with his U.S. counterpart Christopher Hill was designed to follow up on a major agreement at last week's summit between the two allies' presidents, Roh Moo-hyun and George W. Bush.
Roh and Bush committed themselves to a "common and broad approach" to put the troubled six-way talks back on track, but the vague concept has yet to take shape.
Critics dismiss it as mere diplomatic rhetoric aimed at papering over the Seoul-Washington conflict over differing views on Pyongyang.
"We had consultations on how to materialize the common and broad approach," Chun told reporters after a two-hour meeting with Hill at a hotel in New York. "Some ideas were presented. Nothing has been agreed, but consultations will go on."
The South Korean envoy said Washington is apparently ready to talk bilaterally with Pyongyang if the date and venue is fixed for the six-party talks, which also involve China, Russia and Japan.
Such a Pyongyang-Washington bilateral contact is viewed as the key to turning the summit's words into actions amid their increasingly acrimonious relations.
North Korea is hoping to talk directly with the U.S. to avoid its crippling financial sanctions before rejoining the nuclear talks. Washington says any bilateral talks with Pyongyang can be available only in the context of the six-party talks.
A year ago, the U.S. Treasury blacklisted the Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macau, accusing it of serving as a base for the North's financial crimes such as counterfeiting and drug trafficking, a measure that has effectively frozen the communist state's banking activity abroad.
The BDA issue is arguably the biggest stumbling block to the resumption of the six-way process, and South Korea wants the U.S. to wrap up a related investigation as early as possible.
The South Korean president has been rumored to have requested a speedy ending of the investigation in his meeting with U.S.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in the run-up to his summit with Bush. Roh's office denied it.
In Beijing, Paulson indicated that the ongoing probe in the BDA case will be prolonged further.
"No, there is no prescribed time frame" Paulson told reporters in the Chinese capital where he is travelling, when asked whether Washington has set any deadline for the probe.
"This is a law enforcement matter and it will take as long as it takes to resolve it appropriately," he added.
New York, Sept. 20 (Yonhap News)
Seoul, Washington struggle to find ways of resuming nuclear talks |
