South Korea agreed plans yesterday with the US and Japan to freeze and dismantle North Korea's nuclear programs while China and Russia reached a separate consensus, two days before six-way talks on the crisis.
Analysts hold out scant hope of a breakthrough at the talks starting tomorrow, citing lack of trust between the two protagonists -- the US and North Korea -- in ending a dispute that has stoked regional tensions since late 2002.
It has taken six months to bring the six delegations back to the negotiating table after a first round of talks in Beijing last August failed to narrow the gap.
South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck said the three goals for Seoul, the US and Japan were to persuade Pyongyang to accept a joint statement in which it pledges to dismantle its nuclear programs, set up a working group to regularize talks and agree to a date for a third round.
"The fundamental position of the three countries at this round is that all nuclear programs, including the highly enriched uranium program, must be dismantled," Lee told reporters after meeting the Americans and the Japanese in Seoul.
Lee, Seoul's chief negotiator, spelled out a three-stage plan for ending the 16-month-old impasse and rolling back Pyongyang's two programs for making atomic bombs. He said it was a refined version of what Seoul presented at the first round in August.
North Korea recently proposed a freeze in its nuclear activities in return for diplomatic concessions and aid as a first step towards a resolution of the dispute.
The US wants the North to commit to the "complete, irreversible and verifiable" scrapping of its atomic programs.
Phase one of Lee's announced plan would have North Korea declare its willingness to dismantle its nuclear programs and the US state its readiness to provide security guarantees. The pledges would be in writing, Lee said.
The second phase would start with a freeze of North Korean nuclear activities that, once verified through inspections, would be met by "corresponding measures," such as energy aid and other rewards, Lee said, calling a freeze "the start of dismantlement."
"A freeze is meaningless by itself," Lee said. "It is only meaningful when it is the first step towards dismantlement.
"There can be no freeze without verification," he said.
Host China, said Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (
Xinhua news agency quoted Losyukov as saying Russia supported the North's proposal to freeze its atomic weapons program as one phase of the process.
Moscow's position was "very close" to that of China, Xinhua quoted Losyukov as saying, adding that both countries urged all sides at the talks "to show flexibility and sincerity."
Losyukov expressed cautious optimism amid signs the talks could go beyond the originally expected three days.
"We have some hopes for the better," he said after arriving in Beijing.
The US and Japanese delegations were due later, and the South and North Koreans were expected today.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have made clear to Pyongyang that the talks must cover not only North Korea's plutonium-based nuclear arms program, but a second suspected bomb-making scheme based on highly enriched uranium.
North Korea denies it has a program for enriching uranium to make bomb fuel. The US says Pyongyang officials had acknowledged such a program in October 2002 when confronted with evidence presented by US officials and only later denied it in the face of international criticism.
In a sign talks could go beyond a mere outlining of positions, China told Japan that the talks could run beyond Friday, a Japanese official said.
Reports from regional capitals suggested North Korea might be prepared to discuss the suspected uranium-enrichment program. Bei-jing wants the talks to produce, at minimum, a written consensus on points of common ground as well as agreement on a smaller working group that would meet regularly.
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