North Korea is taking a tough line toward the six-country nuclear disarmament talks, but it has “no immediate potential” to restart its nuclear reactor, the top US negotiator said on Monday.
Diplomat Christopher Hill echoed US President George W. Bush’s concerns about North Korean moves to reactivate the plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon, but dismissed any suggestion that the negotiations were unraveling.
“They’ve been staking out some very tough negotiating positions ... so yes the negotiating process does continue,” Hill told reporters in New York. “Clearly we’re seeing a tough line from them in the last month.”
He said it was “hard to tell” whether reports over the last month of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s poor health were related to the “rather rough and tumble moment” in the talks.
Kim, 66, has not been seen in public since Aug. 14 and he missed a major military parade earlier this month. South Korean intelligence leaks say he suffered a stroke.
Pyongyang confirmed on Friday that it was working to restart the plutonium-producing reactor. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Monday that North Korea had asked it to remove seals and surveillance equipment from the complex.
Hill declined to comment on the IAEA report, but doubted that North Korea could quickly get the site going again, saying it could take months to reactivate the reprocessing plant and more than a year for the whole reactor complex.
“I don’t think there is any immediate potential for restarting the thing,” he said.
Hill said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “had a wide-ranging good discussion” with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and that she would be meeting other participants in New York from the six-party process.
He said the players in the six-party process had to consult each other about the “best way forward,” adding that talks would take place in New York this week and more talks would take place next week.
Rice was also due to discuss the North Korean issue with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) over dinner on Monday, US officials said.
Bush expressed concern to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on Sunday over North Korea’s plans, White House Spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
“The two presidents agreed that they would work hard to convince the North to continue down the path established in the six-party talks toward denuclearization,” Johndroe said.
China yesterday urged “flexibility” in the North Korean nuclear dispute.
China’s response to Pyongyang’s latest moves was characteristically cautious.
“Under the present circumstances, we hope the concerned parties [will] enhance contacts and show flexibility and together make efforts to resolve the salient problems as soon as possible,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) told a regular news conference.
China has hosted the six-way talks since 2003 and generally avoids harsh words against the North. South Korea, the US, Japan and Russia also participate in the stop-start negotiations.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat