Envoys from the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) staked out sharply different positions at the start of six-way talks on Wednesday in Beijing on a crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear programs, underscoring the difficulties of a major breakthrough.  

The United States stood fast, calling for the irreversible, verifiable dismantling of DPRK's plutonium and uranium weapons programs and repeating that it did not intend to attack the DPRK.

The United States and the DPRK are expected to hold bilateral talks Wednesday on the sidelines of a six-country meeting about the DPRK's nuclear program, said Lee Soo-hyuck, delegation leader of the Republic of Korea (ROK). Sources said the meeting would be held Wednesday afternoon at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse where the main talks were held earlier. The US delegation is led by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, while Pyongyang's is headed by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan.

After half a year of shuttle diplomacy, delegates from north and south Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan shook hands before taking their places at a hexagonal table in a guarded guesthouse for the second such meeting brokered by China.

China swiftly took on the role of honest broker.

"As the talks deepen, we will face more difficulties and meet more challenges. The talks aim to enlarge the consensus, not to highlight the differences, to settle problems, not to escalate conflict," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The DPRK said it hoped the talks would create "a positive result" and narrow the gap between Pyongyang and Washington, said its top negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan,

Political will needed

"The United States seeks the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of all the DPRK's nuclear programs, both plutonium and uranium-based," US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said.

Many analysts see little hope of substantive progress at the first-day talks since an inconclusive round last August because of deep mistrust between the two protagonists and disagreement over the suspected uranium enrichment program.

DPRK's Kim said political will at this round "would serve as a basis for narrowing down the existing differences of position and opinions between the DPRK and the United States and break the current impasse."

The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when US officials said the DPRK admitted to a covert program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. The DPRK has since denied such a scheme, but it has offered to freeze a plutonium-based program that it reactivated when it pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty last year.

However, it warned on Tuesday that any attempt to raise the "purely fictitious" uranium issue would only prolong the crisis.

Demanding commitments

In a move to reassure Pyongyang, which has demanded security guarantees from the United States in the form of a non-aggression pact, Kelly said the DPRK had no need for concern.

"The United States has no intention of invading or attacking the DPRK," he said.

Washington was not alone in seeking clarity on the uranium.

"North Korea (DPRK) must make commitments to promptly abandon its nuclear programs and activities, including the enriched uranium program, and fully disclose its nuclear programs," Japanese delegate Mitoji Yabunaka said.

ROK's Lee Soo-hyuck said a swift solution was crucial. "We need to send a clear message. The message is that a nuclear-free Korean peninsula is not in the distant future.

Signs have emerged that Pyongyang's stance may be softening.

DPRK diplomats held informal talks this month in Vienna with officials from the UN nuclear watchdog on a possible resumption of inspections of the country's nuclear complex at Yongbyon, Japan's Kyodo News Agency said on Tuesday.

This was the first substantial contact between the DPRK and the International Atomic Energy Agency since inspectors were ousted in December 2002.

(China Daily February 25, 2004)