North Korea's top nuclear envoy said Thursday that his country will not "unilaterally" give up its nuclear weapons program, snubbing Washington's repeated calls for it to "get out of the business."
Kim Kye-gwan, meeting in Beijing with fellow negotiators in the six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program, said the communist regime is still committed to last year's Sept. 19 joint statement, in which it agreed to abandon its nuclear program.
"We are ready to implement our pledge made in the Sept. 19 joint statement," Kim said after a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Chun Yung-woo.
"But we cannot unilaterally give up (the nuclear program) at the current stage," he added.
The meeting between the chief nuclear negotiators from the two Koreas followed two days of lengthy talks between the North Korean envoy and Christopher Hill, Washington's point man on Pyongyang.
Although Kim and Hill agreed to resume the long-stalled six-way talks "as early as possible," they reportedly failed to set a date. Prospects are divided over whether the negotiations will be able to restart in December.
"The North Koreans conducted this experiment, now it's time for them to get out of this business," Hill told reporters earlier in the day before flying to Tokyo en route to Washington.
He was talking about Pyongyang's underground nuclear test on Oct. 9.
"We don't accept that firing off this nuclear device somehow makes them a nuclear power and I made very clear they have to get out of the business. There is no future for the DPRK (North Korea) as long as they are on this nuclear track," he added.
He expressed hopes that the six-party talks will resume next month.
"We still hope to get this thing going in December. We want to make sure they make some progress," he said.
Hill also urged Pyongyang to rejoin the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Meanwhile, Chun had a meeting with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei just before discussions with the North Korean diplomat.
It marks the second time this year for the chief nuclear envoys from the two Koreas to have bilateral discussions after a meeting in Tokyo in April on the sidelines of the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue.
"(We) exchanged opinions in a candid manner," Chun said on his 70-minute talk with Kim at a Beijing restaurant. "There was no difference on the principle to resume the six-way talks and make progress, but some issues exist which need a fine-tuning of the details." Chun is scheduled to return to Seoul on Thursday evening, his aides said.
Beijing, Nov. 30 (Yonhap News)
N. Korea rejects abandoning nuclear weapons without incentives |
