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May 2. (Yonhap News) 　

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

On June 2, a senior South Korean government official said that, if North Korea created the conditions for resuming dialogue by showing some degree of sincerity about denuclearization, Seoul would be willing to take action to reopen the six-party talks.

This official spoke to Washington correspondents from the South Korean media after meeting with officials from the US State Department. “We are interested in meaningful dialogue about denuclearization,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “Therefore, for negotiations to take place, there needs to be some degree of sincerity from North Korea to show it is really trying to join in talks about denuclearization.”

“There is little if any point about talking with them if they keep saying that they will not get rid of their nuclear weapons. That is why South Korea and the US are unable to create the conditions for resuming dialogue. North Korea must create those conditions,” the official said.

“We are currently talking with the US and China about what would enable us to confirm that sincerity, and the US and China are talking about that, too,” the official also said. He added that there are plans for follow-up deliberations with China before long.

The remarks are taken to mean that the US and South Korea are interested in getting the six-party talks moving again, but that instead of setting up a roadmap to lead the negotiations, they want North Korea to be the one to bring forward a proposal for negotiations. It seems that they have asked China to serve as a mediator in that process.

What is attracting notice is what this official said about the preconditions for resuming talks. While the US and South Korea had been insisting that North Korea must fulfill the terms of the Feb. 29 Agreement, among other things, the official said, that “when South Korea, the US, and China talk about preconditions, they are not referring to that framework.”

In the Feb. 29 Agreement of 2012, North Korea agreed to suspend nuclear testing and long-range missile launches, to temporary suspend activity at the Yongbyon Reactor, and to permit inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The preconditions not included in this agreement included North Korea making public its uranium enrichment facilities.

“If North Korea wants to show it is serious about denuclearization, there shouldn‘t be a problem,” the official noted. “Whether we require seven preconditions or two preconditions, why would we need to make that kind of effort?”

During a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on May 26, President Park Geun-hye mentioned North Korea’s threats about nuclear tests and its operation of the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. “If North Korea was sincere about dialogue, it would at least stop doing these things,” Park said. These remarks can be seen as the minimum that the South Korean government is requesting.

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