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US, DPRK urged to engage in dialogue

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-18 08:27

China wants the United States to engage the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) directly to ease escalating tensions over Pyongyang's renewed nuclear weapons activities, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has said.

In an interview published in Japan's Nikkei newspaper on Friday, Yang said the Six-Party Talks hosted by Beijing remain the way forward in making the Korean Peninsula nuclear free, despite Pyongyang's declaration this week that it would boycott the talks for good and resume work at shuttered atomic facilities.

Full Coverage: DPRK Satellite Launch Related readings: UN inspectors leave DPRK DPRK to restart nuclear reactor US urges DPRK not to quit talks Russia calls on DPRK to return to negotiating table

But Yang hoped that the Obama administration would deal directly with Pyongyang.

"(China) hopes for an improvement and development of US-DPRK relations," Yang, a former ambassador to Washington, said. "It is a relationship that will mutually help both sides whether it takes a bilateral or multilateral route."

China has hosted the six-nation negotiations since 2003. The talks bring together the DPRK, the Republic of Korea (ROK), the United States, Japan, Russia and China.

Chinese analysts have said Beijing believes the key to defusing the stand-off is a fresh proposal to Pyongyang from Washington.

On Monday, China backed a United Nations Security Council statement condemning DPRK's recent rocket launch, which Pyongyang said was for sending a communications satellite. Other countries such as Japan and the US, however, believed it was the test of a long-range missile.

Yang also repeated calls for calm.

"It is appropriate for the DPRK to explain why it took the action," he told the Nikkei. "Supporting the discussion process is very important and we want to make positive efforts, such as keeping in close contact with each country."

Liu Jiangyong, a researcher on Asia-Pacific issues at Tsinghua University, said Yang's remarks indicate that China is open to a direct engagement between the US and the DPRK that could lead to a final settlement of the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue.

But the US won't pursue direct talks with the DPRK at the expense of the Six-Party Talks, Kyodo News agency reported.

US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg made the comment on Thursday to Seiji Maehara, a top official in Japan's main opposition Democratic Party.

Steinberg also told Maehara that the US will call for talks with China, Japan, Russia and ROK by the end of this month on how to deal with the DPRK, it said.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency left the DPRK on Thursday after removing all seals and switching off surveillance cameras, the IAEA said.

The DPRK conducted a nuclear test in 2006 but later agreed to dismantle its nuclear program in return for shipments of fuel oil under a 2007 six-nation deal. The process has been stalled since last year by a dispute over how to verify the DPRK's past nuclear activities.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will go to Pyongyang next week to try and sway the country to return to six-way nuclear talks and abide by a disarmament-for-aid deal, ROK's largest daily Chosun Ilbo quoted diplomatic sources in Moscow as saying.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday confirmed the report.

But Liu cast doubts over the effectiveness of the planned visit, brushing it aside as a "diplomatic gesture".

Jin Canrong, a professor of international studies at Renmin University of China, said Russia intends to use the visit to show the other parties that it is trying hard to contribute to the talks as well as the easing of regional tensions.

"China would like to see Russia play its part. But the DPRK may not listen to it," Jin said.

China Daily, AP and Reuters