World War III **NEWS** Tuesday, July 22, 2003
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N.Korea Restates Demand as Nuclear Talks Seen
North Korea restated on Monday its demand for a non-aggression treaty
with the United States, resurrecting the communist state's old terms
for resolving its nuclear crisis amid growing expectations of
multilateral talks.
"If the United States dropped its hostile policy toward the DPRK
(North Korea) and legally committed itself to non-aggression, the
latter would be ready to dispel the U.S. concern," said the state-run
KCNA news agency.
The KCNA commentary came shortly after a South Korean newspaper
reported that nuclear crisis talks between North Korea, the United
States and China are likely to be held on September 6 in the Chinese
capital, Beijing.
The mainstream Korea Times quoted anonymous sources as saying an
announcement would be made this week.
A South Korean government official said Seoul was unaware of any
schedule for a second round of nuclear talks following a meeting of
U.S., North Korean and Chinese officials in April in Beijing.
But Seoul has been encouraged after a flurry of diplomatic efforts by
China, which sent a senior envoy to Moscow, Pyongyang and Washington
this month to try to build momentum for talks to defuse northeast
Asia's biggest security threat.
China has floated new talks formats to try to bridge the gap between
mutually distrustful parties. Pyongyang demands bilateral talks with
Washington, while the United States says only multilateral pressure
can make a deal with the North stick.
Russia's top Asia expert warned the nuclear standoff between the
United States and North Korea "could get hot" and urged the two
countries to start talks, in any form, as soon as possible.
Deputy Foreign Ministry Alexander Losyukov, quoted by news agencies on
a visit to South Korea, also said orders had been issued to test
Russia's civil defense system on its far eastern borders in view of
the worsening situation.
"Only talks can make things less acute. Signals from the main
participants, primarily the United States and North Korea, are needed
to ease tensions," Losyukov told Interfax.
"So far this is not happening, which is preventing the start of talks
in any form. Meanwhile, the situation continues to deteriorate and is
slowly sinking into a state of conflict which could get hot."
BOTH SIDES TALK TOUGH
The KCNA commentary resurrected the non-aggression pact demand that
North Korea first made in October, days after the nuclear row erupted
when U.S. officials said the North had acknowledged it had a covert
atomic program.
In the earlier, inconclusive Beijing round of talks, North Korea
sought the non-aggression pact, diplomatic normalisation and economic
help first in exchange for dismantling its nuclear programs later -- a
proposal the United States rejected.
KCNA did not mention three-way talks or other formats for
negotiations. The Korea Times said an expanded meeting involving South
Korea and Japan would follow September's three-way talks.
"The nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. is a very acute
matter of 'who beats whom'," it said.
"Therefore, there can be no unilateral concession or compromise forced
by one side."
An editorial in Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling party daily,
insisting on the need for a treaty said: "Whether the nuclear issue
between the two countries is settled in a peaceful way or by war
depends on the U.S. action."
The United States rejects North Korea's portrayal of the nuclear
dispute as a bilateral matter, saying Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions
threaten neighbors South Korea and Japan and violate several key
international arms-control agreements.
A senior U.S. official in Washington said last week that the American
position in any future talks would be the same as it has been: an
offer of a new relationship "if there is a complete transformation in
the way North Korea does business on nuclear, biological, chemical and
ballistic missile programs."
Officials with experience of negotiating with North Korea say
Pyongyang's reiteration of a proposal that has been rejected reflects
a tactic of stiffening demands just before entering talks to make
subsequent proposals seem like concessions.
But Lee Jung-hoon, professor of international relations at Seoul's
Yonsei University, said the non-aggression pact appeal was an attempt
to convince the world that "the peninsula's stability is threatened by
the U.S., not by North Korea."
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