12 September 2003 09:57
Russia reports North Korea ready for further talks if US submits new proposals
Pyongyang, 12 September: North Korea is ready to participate in the second round of six-party talks on the nuclear
programme if Washington submits new proposals to settle it, a diplomatic source in Pyongyang told TASS Friday [12
September]. The source said the parties "very clearly expressed their positions" at the first round of talks
in Beijing on 27-29 August.
"The discussion showed that Washington was unprepared to revise its hostile policy towards Pyongyang and worked
to make the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) unilaterally disarm", the source said.
Earlier the head of the North Korean delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il made it clear that his country
"would never surrender weapons in the face of an enemy armed to the teeth". The North Korean Foreign Ministry
said in a statement on 30 August that "in such contradictions the DPRK sees no sense in the continuation of the
dialogue".
However the diplomatic source explained the statement did not mean North Korea was rejecting future talks altogether,
but only insisted the United States eases and changes its stance. "Without that the discussion of the problem will
be a repetition of what was said at the first Beijing meeting," he stressed.The source refused comment on a
possible date of new talks saying that everything now depends on the US administration. However, he named Beijing as the
most likely venue.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
