Asia-Pacific

    Hill wants 'good beginning' at nuke talks

    (AFP)
    Updated: 2007-02-05 09:31
    Large Medium Small

    EOUL - Chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill has called for a "good beginning" at upcoming six-party talks on dismantling North Korea's atomic weapons programme.

    Hill wants 'good beginning' at nuke talks
    Chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, pictured, has called for a "good beginning" at upcoming six-party talks on dismantling North Korea's atomic weapons programme. [AFP]
    Hill wants 'good beginning' at nuke talks
    Hill has been in Seoul since Saturday to confer with senior South Korean officials to flesh out a joint strategy for Thursday's talks in Beijing.

    "What we would like to see is to have a good beginning," he said ahead of a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Chun Yung-Woo. "But the ultimate task for us is to complete the denuclearization, not just to begin the denuclearization."

    Hill earlier spoke to Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon and other officials. "South Korea and the US have reached a perfect consensus on the strategy for the next round of six-party talks," Chun said after meeting the US envoy Sunday.

    Speaking on his arrival Saturday, Hill expressed hoped of progress in the new round of talks, which gather the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States.

    The round aims to begin the implementation of a September 2005 deal under which the North agreed to scrap its nuclear weapons in exchange for energy and economic aid, security guarantees and diplomatic benefits.

    That deal went nowhere after North Korea boycotted the six-party forum two months later in protest at the imposition of US financial sanctions on a Macau bank accused of handling counterfeit money for Pyongyang.

    Pyongyang then upped the stakes by testing a nuclear device for the first time last October, and six-nation talks in December - the first for more than a year - produced little of substance.

    But hopes of progress this time around have been revived after rare direct US-North Korean negotiations in Berlin last month.

    "We had hoped to do that in December and I think we do have some reason to believe we can make some progress on that," Hill said Saturday, referring to implementing the 2005 deal.

    Hill urged DPRK to make "some real changes on the ground" toward disarmament.

    He refused to give details, but experts cite a freeze of activities at Pyongyang's plutonium-producing main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in return for economic benefits.

    Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper, meanwhile, reported Sunday that Pyongyang has demanded more than 500,000 tonnes of oil a year or an equivalent volume of energy assistance in return for suspending the reactor.

    The demand emerged when North Korean officials, including its chief nuclear envoy Kim Kye-Gwan, met two US experts in Pyongyang last week, the paper said.

    "They also want a commitment by the United States to lift economic restrictions on North Korea, and the discussion focused on the American list of state sponsors of international terrorism," former US State Department official Joel Witt told Japan's public broadcaster NHK after his Pyongyang trip.

    Hill denied having had any discussions about heavy fuel oil with North Koreans, but stressed the 2005 statement does refer to economic assistance and energy assistance.

    US and North Korean officials held a separate meeting in Beijing last week aimed at settling the dispute over the US financial sanctions, which have until now blocked progress on the nuclear issue.

    Hill called the meeting "very useful" despite its lack of agreement.

    The US sanctions were imposed because Washington accused Macau-based Banco Delta Asia (BDA) of serving as a key conduit for North Korean money laundering and dollar counterfeiting.

    North Korea denied the US claims and has insisted that the banking curbs - which have frozen some 24 million dollars in its accounts at BDA - be removed before any nuclear discussions.

    Hill leaves Monday for Tokyo and talks with Japanese officials before heading to Beijing.

    分享按鈕
    亚洲gv天堂无码男同在线观看| 精品久久久久久无码中文野结衣| 日本中文字幕网站| 无码精品视频一区二区三区| 人妻少妇久久中文字幕一区二区| 国产成人午夜无码电影在线观看 | 在线看中文福利影院| 午夜人性色福利无码视频在线观看 | AAA级久久久精品无码片| 人妻无码αv中文字幕久久琪琪布| 夜夜精品无码一区二区三区| 日韩精品无码熟人妻视频| 三上悠亚ssⅰn939无码播放| 日韩乱码人妻无码中文字幕久久 | 人妻无码久久一区二区三区免费| 欧美成人中文字幕在线看| 影音先锋中文无码一区| 少妇中文无码高清| 精品无码久久久久国产| 亚洲精品成人无码中文毛片不卡| 中文字幕精品久久久久人妻| 日本免费中文字幕| 人妻丝袜中文无码av影音先锋专区 | 无码人妻丰满熟妇啪啪网站| 亚洲av无码专区在线观看素人| 曰韩精品无码一区二区三区| 最近更新免费中文字幕大全| 亚洲日本中文字幕| av中文字幕在线| 久久精品亚洲中文字幕无码麻豆| 亚洲成av人片在线观看天堂无码| 99无码人妻一区二区三区免费| 丰满少妇人妻无码| 丰满熟妇乱又伦在线无码视频 | 国产成人无码免费网站| 精品日韩亚洲AV无码| 91精品国产综合久久四虎久久无码一级| 台湾无码一区二区| 久久久久亚洲AV片无码下载蜜桃 | 无码人妻视频一区二区三区| 亚洲精品无码成人片久久|