The chief U.S. nuclear envoy said Friday he was "cautiously optimistic" about the prospect of an agreement on North Korea's nuclear program but acknowledged that there still remained "differences of views" among the six parties concerned.
Emerging from a one-hour luncheon meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, Christopher Hill said they discussed a China-drafted statement that spells out first steps to be taken by Pyongyang to disarm in exchange for aid.
"We talked about the Chinese draft and our views a bit and their views a bit," Hill said, adding, "So I think we can be cautiously optimistic." Hill, however, acknowledged that it was too early to predict the outcome of the negotiations. "This is a difficult time when you are trying to talk about words on a paper and making sure you have the same understanding of the words," he said, adding that there are "differences of views among various delegations."
"But I think there's a realization that the first step we are looking to take is a big first step ... to some extend it's going to require a little bit of jump for them (North Koreans), so I think they want to be sure they understand what's expected of them," he said.
Kim, also speaking to reporters, said he and Hill had "agreed on some issues," but that "some points of confrontation" still existed in the overall negotiations.
North Korea and the U.S. are the two main protagonists in the six-nation talks which also involve South Korea, Japan and Russia.
China has been hosting the talks since they started in 2003.
Resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue has added urgency because of the communist country's first-ever nuclear weapons test on Oct. 9. A December round ended without a breakthrough.
The Chinese draft was said to include the establishment of five working-level groups within the nuclear talks process, which will oversee the North's dismantlement of its nuclear program as well as talks on normalization of ties between North Korea and Japan and between the North and the U.S.
Hill said "four to six" working groups would be formed should this week's negotiations with North Korea succeed.
"I think part of what we are trying to do is to set the stage for the next round ... as we drill into this matter, it's going to get more technical. We'll need working groups," Hill told reporters earlier in the day.
South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo said the Chinese statement is qualified as "a good basis for negotiations."
Other details of the Chinese statement include a proposal for North Korea to freeze several nuclear-related facilities, including its only operational 5-megawatt reactor and a radiochemical laboratory, according to multiple sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The proposal also calls for North Korea to re-allow in outside nuclear monitors in exchange for an unspecified amount of energy aid from the five other countries involved in the talks, they said.
The latest nuclear row spiked in late 2002 when U.S. officials accused North Korea of having a secret uranium-based weapons program, in addition to its acknowledged plutonium-based one, a claim denied by the North.
The U.S. subsequently halted promised fuel oil shipments to the North. Pyongyang responded by expelling U.N. nuclear monitors and withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
Beijing, Feb. 9 (Yonhap News)
Parties remain hopeful despite differences on proposed nuclear deal |