US and North Korea meet for talks

BEIJING – Two senior US delegations held direct talks yesterday with officials from North Korea as a diplomatic drive to persuade the Stalinist regime to give up its nuclear weapons entered a crucial phase.

Finance experts from the two nations met in Beijing to discuss a drawn-out dispute over US sanctions on the North that the cash-strapped nation has said must be resolved before it will consider surrendering its nuclear arms. They met on the sidelines of key six-nation talks aimed at convincing North Korea to disarm, and which resumed only on Monday after a 13-month suspension caused by Pyongyang’s objections to the sanctions.The restart of the negotiations came after North Korea shocked the world on October 9 with its first-ever atomic test.As the financial teams huddled down here yesterday, officials said the chief US and North Korean envoys to the six-nation forum met separately for their first formal face-to-face encounter since the talks restarted.While no details were immediately available on what had been discussed in both meetings, US envoy Christopher Hill said earlier yesterday that the day’s events would be vital in determining if Pyongyang may be prepared to disarm.North Korea had returned to the forum in a defiant mood on Monday with its chief envoy Kim Kye-Gwan outlining a long list of demands he said must be met before it would consider scrapping its nuclear arms.Under the US sanctions, 24 million dollars belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and other members of his ruling elite have been frozen in a Macau bank.Aside from unfreezing those funds, Kim said that United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea in October after its test must also be lifted.Kim further demanded that North Korea be given help in building a nuclear reactor for power needs and that the US policy of “hostility” against it must be dropped.Hill, as well as the Japanese and South Korean chief delegates, tried to downplay the North’s opening demands, describing them as opening gambits with Tuesday’s negotiations important to see if compromise could be made.Nampa-AFPThey met on the sidelines of key six-nation talks aimed at convincing North Korea to disarm, and which resumed only on Monday after a 13-month suspension caused by Pyongyang’s objections to the sanctions.The restart of the negotiations came after North Korea shocked the world on October 9 with its first-ever atomic test.As the financial teams huddled down here yesterday, officials said the chief US and North Korean envoys to the six-nation forum met separately for their first formal face-to-face encounter since the talks restarted.While no details were immediately available on what had been discussed in both meetings, US envoy Christopher Hill said earlier yesterday that the day’s events would be vital in determining if Pyongyang may be prepared to disarm.North Korea had returned to the forum in a defiant mood on Monday with its chief envoy Kim Kye-Gwan outlining a long list of demands he said must be met before it would consider scrapping its nuclear arms.Under the US sanctions, 24 million dollars belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and other members of his ruling elite have been frozen in a Macau bank.Aside from unfreezing those funds, Kim said that United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea in October after its test must also be lifted.Kim further demanded that North Korea be given help in building a nuclear reactor for power needs and that the US policy of “hostility” against it must be dropped.Hill, as well as the Japanese and South Korean chief delegates, tried to downplay the North’s opening demands, describing them as opening gambits with Tuesday’s negotiations important to see if compromise could be made.Nampa-AFP