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China proposes six-party nuclear talks in Feb.
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-01-21 13:53
China has proposed the resumption of six-party nuclear disarmament talks in
February when North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il visited Beijing this week, a South
Korean newspaper says.
Chinese President
Hu Jintao (R) with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. China has proposed the
resumption of six-party nuclear disarmament talks in February when North
Korean leader Kim Jong-Il visited Beijing this week, a South Korean
newspaper says. [AFP/File] |
The JoongAng newspaper quoted a diplomatic source as saying China had asked
North Korea to return to the six-party forum during the second week of February.
Prospects for new six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons
drive heightened this week after Kim met Chinese President Hu Jintao and agreed
to push for "a negotiated peaceful solution to the issue".
South Korean officials, however, believe the resumption of talks remains
uncertain due to a standoff over US financial sanctions on North Korea for
alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities, the newspaper said.
North Korea has said it would only return to the six-party talks involving
the United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia if Washington lifted
the sanctions.
Meanwhile, a senior US State Department official told Japan's Kyodo news
agency: "I think that there was a suggestion. The Chinese had talked about early
February."
"We reaffirm the fact that we're ready to go to Beijing in early February,
but there's not yet agreement," the unnamed official was quoted as saying.
At talks this week in Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
her South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-Moon called for a resumption in talks to
break the impasse over the three-year-old crisis.
Rice said Pyongyang had received a clear message from the international
community on the need for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
"We both urge the North Koreans to come back to the talks without conditions,
because North Korea also is being told by the international community that it
has to be a Korean peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons and that North
Korea must dismantle its nuclear programs," Rice said.
In September, North Korea agreed in principle to give up its nuclear weapons
program in return for a US security guarantee and other economic and diplomatic
benefits. But the last round of six-way talks ended in stalemate in November.
The United States has blacklisted eight North Korean companies, accusing
Pyongyang of manufacturing counterfeit US dollar bills and using a Macau bank as
a front for money-laundering.
The US Treasury on Friday urged Asia to take defensive measures against North
Korea's illicit activities, after Daniel Glaser, the deputy assistant secretary
for terrorist financing and financial crimes, visited Hong Kong and Macau.
Glaser discussed with officials in the southern Chinese territories how to
cooperate on controls against money laundering and terrorist financing, a
Treasury statement said.
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