hankyoreh

A war of nerves is unfolding between North Korea and the United States in the wake of the breakdown in talks at the six-party “head of delegation” negotiations in Beijing December 8-12.

Before boarding his plane for Pyongyang at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Saturday, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said his country “is not worried about whether (energy and economic aid) is halted or whether it is supplied.”

“If it is not furnished to us, we will just readjust the pace of the disablement” of the Yongbyon nuclear facility, he said.

On Friday, at a press briefing in Washington, State Department spokesman Scott McCormack said that within the “action-for-action process” it was the “understanding of the other parties” that “future fuel shipments aren’t going to move forward absent a verification regime.”

McCormack said North Korea could still put its name on a verification document.

“The way that this was left was that the North Koreans didn’t sign onto this verification protocol, that they would go back to their capital -- all the other parties would go back to their capitals -- and there is the opportunity for North Korea to sign onto this verification protocol. That still exists. We’ll see. The ball is in their court,” he said, adding that one shipment of oil from Russia is still in transit.

Amid the rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang, China and Russia are emphasizing the need for management of the situation to prevent it from turning even worse.

On Saturday, referring to the summit meeting between the leaders of China, South Korea, and Japan in Fukuoka, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the three countries “had differences of view” but that the “differences shrank.”

The six-party talks “will proceed along the principle of commitment for commitment and action-for-action” and that “nuclear disablement and economic and energy aid must happen simultaneously,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier on the same day, top Russian delegate to the six-party talks Alexei Borodavkin said that Russia will “continue to provide North Korea with oil in accordance with the six-party agreement on denuclearization.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]