U.S. envoy calls for concrete proposals at Korean nuclear talks

Wednesday, December 20th 2006, 10:26 am

By: News On 6

BEIJING (AP) The top U.S. envoy at the North Korean nuclear talks urged delegates Wednesday to start hashing out details of a disarmament deal, warning that the latest round of negotiations could end with no real progress.

China's foreign minister echoed the call, urging all sides to live up to promises made in a September 2005 agreement for North Korea to disarm in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees. The six-nation talks started Monday after Pyongyang ended a 13-month boycott during which it tested its first nuclear bomb.

``The urgent thing is to make some plans to enact the joint statement and to realize all the commitments every party made,'' Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said, according to a ministry statement. ``We should make concerted efforts to overcome all differences in order for the talks to move forward and reach practical results.''

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said delegates should start working on a draft agreement if they hope to make any progress.

``If we are going to get to the end of the week and have something tangible, I think we probably need to be working at something on paper in the very near future,'' he told reporters shortly before Wednesday's meeting began.

``At this point I don't want to say I am pessimistic or optimistic,'' he said. ``I just don't know where we are going to end up.''

The North said it would be willing to halt operation of its main nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors ``under the right conditions,'' a South Korean official said on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing negotiations.

``We are focusing our discussion on what those conditions would be,'' he said.

As soon as North Korea allows the return of nuclear inspectors, Washington would be willing to provide a written pledge not to seek to topple the communist regime by force, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources at the talks.

Hill has declined to release details of any U.S. proposals. South Korean negotiator Chun Yung-woo said the ideas were simply ``an official detailed and concrete proposal'' of what the sides had previously discussed.

Chun said talks would run through Friday but cautioned there was no guarantee of a breakthrough.

``We had initially targeted to end the talks tomorrow, but since serious discussions are continuing ... we have agreed to continue the talks,'' he told reporters. ``We cannot predict that we will be able to produce a document of breakthrough agreements after two days.''

In separate talks, U.S. and North Korean financial experts met for five hours over Washington's campaign to isolate the regime from the international banking system. The two sides made no breakthroughs and planned no further meetings.

Washington alleges the North is involved in a range of illegal activity, from counterfeiting $100 bills to money laundering to selling weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea is refusing to back down from its demand that U.S. financial restrictions be lifted before it dismantles its nuclear program, delegates said.

``The financial issues are a major interest for North Korea,'' Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae said after the third day of discussions in Beijing.

However, he pleaded with the North to put aside that issue at the nuclear talks.

``I think it is not realistic to treat the financial issue as a major block while putting broader discussion on hold,'' Sasae said.

The U.S. blacklisted a Macau bank where the North held accounts, accusing it of complicity in Pyongyang's alleged money laundering and counterfeiting. North Korea cited the measure in boycotting the nuclear talks.

Daniel Glaser, the deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes who is leading the American delegation, said a resolution of the issue would require a ``long-term process'' and that he might meet the North Koreans next month in New York.

``For this process moving forward to be productive and useful, it's going to have to start focusing very, very closely on the underlying concerns of illicit finance,'' he told reporters. ``We hope to get to do that.''

The demands from a regime emboldened by its confirmed nuclear status have raised doubts about an imminent resolution to the standoff.

North Korea's state media Wednesday kept up its tough rhetoric against Washington, saying U.S.-South Korean military preparations showed ``the United States is trying to pull a dirty business against the (North) behind the curtain of talks.''

``This is clear proof that (the U.S.) is seeking to vanquish (North Korea) with a military strong arm, whetting its sword of aggression under the mask of dialogue,'' the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper wrote in a commentary, according to the country's official Korean Central News Agency.