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China: Little progress on N. Korea talks
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-09 01:00 The talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
The North's envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, said Pyongyang would
insist on verifying there are no nuclear weapons in South Korea and demand a
guarantee from the United States that it has no plans to attack North Korea,
Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
The United States has maintained it has no plans to invade the North.
The report, which cited a North Korean diplomatic official it did not
identify, did not mention the light-water reactor.
In an editorial in the state-run media, Pyongyang also blasted Washington on
Wednesday for its plan to station a nuclear aircraft carrier in Japan, saying it
threatened to "ignite a new war."
The U.S. and North Korean delegations held a bilateral meeting Wednesday
afternoon but no details were immediately available, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman
said on condition of anonymity, as is embassy policy.
The American delegation also held bilateral talks with each of the other four
delegations, the spokeswoman said.
The dispute erupted in late 2002 after Washington said North Korea admitted
operating a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of a 1994 deal that
gave North Korea energy aid in exchange for renouncing atomic weapons.
China says it expects this week's talks to last three days and then recess so
diplomats can attend an Asian-Pacific economic conference in South Korea this
month.
Political analysts say they do not expect any breakthroughs in this round of
talks.
North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Wednesday criticized U.S.
plans to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan in 2008.
"The Korean people are closely following the U.S. imperialists' moves to
ignite a new war and keeping themselves fully ready to cope with it," the
editorial said, according to a report by the North's KCNA news agency.
China continued its efforts to moderate expectations, saying the meeting
already can be considered a success because the latest round of talks were
underway, as planned.
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