John Kerry says US could be willing to hold dialogue with North Korea

Posted on : 2013-10-05 13:24 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
US Secretary of State also says a non-aggression agreement could be signed to ensure N. Korea’s security
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By Park Byong-su, staff reporter

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Oct. 3 that Washington was prepared to resume dialogue with Pyongyang and sign a non-aggression agreement if it vows to give up its nuclear program and “engage in legitimate negotiations to achieve that end.”

Kerry’s remarks came during a joint press conference after the US-Japan Security Consultative Meeting (2+2) that day among the US and Japanese foreign and defense ministers in Tokyo.

“I think the six parties involved in the six-party talks have made it crystal clear we are prepared to reengage in those talks,” Kerry said.

“We are prepared to have a peaceful relationship with North Korea. We are not engaged in regime change,” he added.

He also said that North Korea had “behaved outside of any standards of rule of law and any of the norms of international behavior.”

But he stressed that Pyongyang should understand that the US was “prepared to engage in negotiations, providing North Korea makes it clear that those negotiations begin with the issue of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.”

His remarks showed a more forward-thinking approach from Washington on the issue of dialogue with Pyongyang and restarting the six-party talks - suggesting that the US would be willing to offer guarantees on North Korea’s biggest concern, security issues, if the North takes steps toward denuclearization.

In recent years, Washington has responded to Pyongyang’s dialogue overtures by saying the country first needed to show its willingness to denuclearize through “words and actions.” But the latest remarks contained an offer for something specific in return: a fairly high-level security guarantee in the form of a non-aggression agreement.

In past agreements with North Korea such as the 1994 Agreed Framework in Geneva, a Oct. 2000 joint communique, and the six-party talks joint statement of Sept. 19, 2005, the US pledged a relatively passive security guarantee - namely that it would not attack North Korea with nuclear or conventional weapons.

Kerry’s comments appear to be Washington’s formal response to Pyongyang’s recent concerted push for dialogue and calls to restart the six-party talks. The fact that they came during a visit to Northeast Asia by the US’s chief diplomat also suggests the aim was to send North Korea a message.

But Kerry also said the US did not intend to have a repeat of past negotiations “which go around in a circle, where there's some concession, some agreement, and then the agreement is broken, and the nuclear program continues.”

He also stressed the role of China.

“China, I believe, has become an important partner, making very significant decisions in the last months to help to bring North Korea to a place of understanding the importance of denuclearizing,” he said.

“So we’re unified,” Kerry added. “Japan, the United States, and China and Russia and . . . the Republic of Korea, are unified in the requirement that the North must commit to denuclearizing.”

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

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