U.S. sees progress in six-party talks, says deadline is of technical issue

Posted on : 2007-07-21 17:07 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST

The United States said Friday there was progress in this week's six-party nuclear talks, despite the absence of a clear deadline for North Korea to declare and disable its nuclear programs.

"I do think we made progress here," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said, calling the talks "very good and productive."

"I think it indicates that we are regaining some momentum in this process," he said.

Nuclear envoys from South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan concluded their three-day negotiations earlier Friday in Beijing with a press communique saying they will hold the next six-way talks in September.

Negotiators went into the meetings with lofty hopes of setting dates by when Pyongyang would disable its atomic facilities and declare all of its nuclear stockpile, the key steps to implementing a Feb. 13 deal signed by the six countries.

On the second day of talks, it became apparent that no such timeline would be reached. The press communique said five working groups created under the February deal would meet during August, with a goal of deciding the dates during the next six-party talks.

The working group issues include denuclearization and energy aid, which would be sequenced action for action. The February agreement says the five other parties would provide 950,000 additional tons of heavy fuel oil or their equivalent to North Korea in return for the disablement and a list of Pyongyang's nuclear programs.

But not specifying a date raised questions about whether the six nations can meet their stated goal -- to complete these actions within this year. Another delay would compound the first set of deadlines that were missed due to a protracted banking dispute over US$25 million North Korean funds.

"The six-party talks will be long and arduous negotiations with no assurances that North Korea has yet made the strategic decision to fully denuclearize," Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said of the situation.

"Not scheduling working group meetings until the end of August and the next round (of six-party talks) until September does not reflect North Korean intention to move forward quickly nor fully disable its nuclear facilities by year's end," he said.

But a State Department official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the U.S. does not view this week's results as foot-dragging by North Korea, that the issue was more technical.

The envoys leading the Beijing talks simply did not have the expertise to determine what or how much time was involved for the disablement, he said.

"The best they could hope for in terms of a deadline was to do a 'put your finger in the wind and try and guess' without a lot of technical detail," the official said. "But the thing is, you want to set deadlines that are based on realistic assumptions of what's practical and reasonable."

There was no pullback or lack of will by North Korea or others in implementing fully the February agreement, the official said, and participants wanted to be certain that the deadlines would be reasonable and can be met.

"I think what these guys are doing is being appropriately cautious in terms of not putting expectations out there" without having considered technical necessities, he said.
WASHINGTON, July 20 (Yonhap News)

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