Thu, September 02, 2010
Discussions about the resumption of international talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program have gathered pace as China's top envoy for Korean Peninsula affairs arrived in Washington Wednesday to meet with senior US officials over the stalled negotiations.
Wu Dawei was to meet with Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth and other US officials, State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley said Tuesday.
Wu's visit to Washington follows his four-day visit to Japan, which started Saturday, during which he met with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and other senior officials.
Wu said Beijing plans to put forth fresh measures to resume the stalled Six-Party Talks, after his meeting with Okada.
But he did not elaborate on what measures China would propose to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiations, which have been stalled since December 2008 after Pyongyang was criticized by the United Nations for missile and nuclear tests.
Wu has been on the move recently in pushing ahead the nuclear talks. Before his trip to Tokyo, he had been in Pyongyang and Seoul, where he proposed a three-tier plan under which the United States and North Korea would engage in bilateral contact, followed by delegation meetings and the participation of the plenary session at the Six-Party Talks.
Wu's trip also comes on the heels of last week's meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Northeastern China, during which Kim expressed his wish to push for an early resumption of the nuclear talks to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Cui Zhiying, a professor specializing in Korean issues at Tongji University, told the Global Times that the resumption would only be possible if the US and the South stop cornering the North.
"Both Washington and Seoul have to avoid putting pressure on North Korea. And the North should take a cooperative approach on the denuclearization," Cui said.
US President Barack Obama stepped up financial sanctions on North Korea on Monday and froze the US assets of four North Korean citizens and eight firms that trade in conventional arms and luxury products and that counterfeit US currency, in a bid to sharpen pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear programs, Reuters reported.
Analysts acknowledged that the six-party format, which involves the US, two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia, is key to easing the tensions and deep-rooted problems on the Peninsula.
Ni Feng, a researcher of American studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the biggest deterrence to resumed talks was how South Korea dealt with its sunken warship in March, as well as Washington's attitude.
Though more important in symbolic terms than its practical significance, the resumption of negotiations would be a good sign for the Korean Peninsula. The effectiveness of the talks has yet to be tested after it actually resumes," Ni said.
Tensions have been running high on the peninsula since the March sinking of a South Korean warship, which an independent international investigation said the North was responsible for. Pyongyang has refused to accept responsibility.
Efforts for the resumption of the nuclear talks were also thrown into limbo following and incident with the South insisting on an apology for the warship sinking from the North as a prerequisite for reengagement.
However, Seoul has signaled a softening of its stance. South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said last week that a North Korean apology for the warship incident wouldn't be a precondition for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
"China is exercising a very good role in pushing the Six-Party Talks. It sends a good signal to all of us. But we have to wait and see if its changes," Choi Choon-heum with Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul told the Global Times.
"If a date for North Korea to open its nuclear facilities for inspection can be fixed, the other parties can talk about how to stop its expansion of nuclear power," he added.
