US insistence that North Korea commit to dismantling its nuclear program before asking for aid in exchange was the "basic hurdle" in low-level talks this week, the North's chief delegate said yesterday.
The US envoy to the six-nation "working level" talks that ended Friday in the Chinese capital said they made progress, but he wouldn't give any details.
North Korea's chief delegate Ri Gun said negotiators supported Pyongyang's bid for aid in exchange for freezing the program. Washington says assistance will come after a freeze only if the North already has committed to what diplomats term CVID -- the "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling" of the program.
"One thing that has been confirmed is that there is a shared view that we must get compensation when we freeze our nuclear weapons development plan," Ri said to reporters at the Beijing airport as he prepared to board a flight home to Pyongyang.
"But the United States kept demanding our promise of CVID, and there has been a shared view that this [US demand] is the basic hurdle in discussions," he said.
Ri added: "We will, however, continue to participate in the talk process with patience."
The discussions this week at a Chinese government guesthouse were meant to resolve technical issues and help to create an agenda for a third round of high-level negotiations.
China said participants affirmed their plans to hold those talks by the end of June and would hold one more lower-level technical meeting before that.
On Friday, US and North Korean officials held rare one-on-one talks and the North denied US claims that Pakistan had provided North Korea with uranium enrichment technology, according to Pak Myong Kuk, a member of the North's delegation.
The former head of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, said in February that he had transferred sensitive technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.
US envoy Joseph DeTrani yesterday called the talks this week a "good meeting." When asked if progress had been made, he answered: "Yes, definitely," but did not elaborate.
China's delegate, Ning Fukui, yesterday appealed for participants to push ahead with the talks.
"It is the hope of the Chinese side that all parties could hold consultations in a flexible, practical and patient manner, and explore ways to settle the issues," the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Ning as saying.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS