Chinese foreign minister discusses six-party talks in Washington

Posted on : 2013-09-23 16:04 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
US officials say Washington’s position on denuclearization before dialogue has not changed
 Sept. 19. (AFP/Yonhap News)
Sept. 19. (AFP/Yonhap News)

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

North Korea said recently that it is prepared to adhere to the Sep. 19 joint statement from 2005 and the Feb. 29 agreement from 2012, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., on Sep. 20. Wang said that recent developments made him optimistic about the likelihood of the six-party talks being resumed.

Wang added that North Korean officials had expressed their willingness to denuclearize, emphasizing the fact that this was the dying wish of late North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. He said that China is in discussions with the US about how to set up a “reasonable threshold” for resuming the six-party talks.

Prior to this, Wang took part in a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington on Sep. 19, but indications are that the two were unable to resolve their differences about resuming the six-party talks.

“The Secretary detailed several disturbing developments that indicated the DPRK continues to flout its previous commitments to denuclearize,” said Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, during a press briefing held after the meeting. “Our position on this hasn’t changed.”

This suggests that Kerry did not accept China’s proposal.

“I am looking forward to having a meaningful discussion with Secretary Kerry about how we will resume the six-party talks and how we will effectively promote the process of denuclearization,” Wang said in a joint press conference held at the State Department in Washington before the bilateral talks began. “I am confident that we will reach a new, important agreement.”

It appears that Wang made some sort of new proposal during the bilateral talks with Kerry. Attention is focusing on additional discussions to be held in the future about the conditions for resuming the six-party talks.

An official in the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested on condition of anonymity that it was unlikely that the six-party talks would be starting up again for the time being.

“The US and China have differences of opinion about how strict the conditions for resuming talks should be and about how the talks should be resumed,” the official noted, while also pointing out that “if they keep working to bridge those differences, it could create momentum for dialogue.”

 

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