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| Sunday, 29 February 2004 |
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North Korean negotiators agree to meet again - reports (Reuters) - Negotiators in Beijing will issue a statement on Saturday agreeing to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and to meet again by the end of June for further talks to resolve North Korea's nuclear crisis, Yonhap news agency said. But after three days of talks, there was little evidence the diplomatic gulf between North Korea and the United States had narrowed as negotiators headed into a final meeting. The United States described the talks as "useful" and Russia said they were "down to earth". Diplomats said the six parties meeting in Beijing had little hope of producing anything beyond a vague consensus and an agreement to meet again. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said a joint statement to be issued at the close of talks would agree to a third round of talks between April and June, part of a seven-item statement. It said North Korea and the United States had received instructions from home and agreed to adopt the joint statement. It gave no details. Japan's Kyodo news agency said the six countries would call for the "coordinated denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula and for the parties to meet again by the end of June. Negotiators from China, the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia were due to hold a closing ceremony in Beijing at 11 a.m. (0300). The crux of the dispute is a U.S. accusation - which North Korea refutes - that North Korea is pursuing a uranium enriching programme for nuclear weapons. A Japanese diplomat said late on Friday the United States had not shown any evidence the North had such a programme. The North wants aid and a security guarantee in return for a nuclear freeze. The United States wants a complete, irreversible and verifiable dismantling of its nuclear programmes. "Differences, difficulties and contradictions" made continuing the talks essential, China said. But it prepared for the possibility no statement would come from the discussions, which took six months of tough diplomacy to pull together after an inconclusive round in Beijing in August. "Right now, the parties are in the process of carrying out intensive consultations on a document, so the hope still exists," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Friday. "If there is not a document, we should not say the talks were a failure.". |
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