U.S.,North Korea caution on hope for nuclear deal
Source: Reuters
(Adds details throughout) By Chris Buckley and Teruaki Ueno BEIJING, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Prospects of ending North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions brightened a little on Friday as negotiators considered a plan for Pyongyang to suspend activities at a nuclear plant as a first step to dismantlement. But both North Korea and the United States cautioned against assuming a deal was a certainty, and Japan even said imminent agreement on even a limited first step was unlikely. "The fundamental issues I think we're okay on," chief U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, told reporters after a second day of six-party talks in China's capital. But two issues remained in dispute, and previous points of agreement could unravel, Hill said. He did not specify the disagreements. "My experience in this is that sometimes things that you think are closed on Friday are opened on Saturday," Hill said. "Just as you're nailing that warped floorboard down, you know, some other floorboard pops up." Japan's chief negotiator, Kenichiro Sasae, sounded a bleaker note, telling reporters: "I don't think there is any prospect at this stage of an agreement being reached. But each country is making efforts to reach an accord." A diplomatic source close to the talks said the draft deal prepared by China stated that North Korea would "suspend, shut down and seal" nuclear facilities at the Yongbyon plant within about two months in return for energy and economic aid. In September 2005, six-party envoys agreed on a joint statement -- a sketch map of the nuclear disarmament steps Pyongyang needed to take to secure fuel and economic aid, as well as political acceptance from its long-time adversary, the United States. But that deal was relegated to the backburner after Washington, in late 2005, accused North Korea of laundering income from counterfeiting U.S. currency and other illicit business. The ensuing crackdown on a Macau bank infuriated Pyongyang. The fresh momentum in the talks between the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia came after the U.S. and North Korean negotiators met in Berlin last month. That meeting cooled tension generated by Pyongyang's first nuclear test blast last October, a step that triggered U.S. sanctions. COUNTING CHICKENS Envoys have voiced hope that North Korea is now ready to restrict its nuclear ambitions after more than three years of stop-start negotiations. Echoing a comment by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday, Hill said: "I think we can be cautiously optimistic but don't want to count our chickens before they hatch". Chief North Korean delegate Kim Kye-gwan said his team had been "able to reach agreement on some issues" with Washington. "There are still differences on a series of issues in the overall talks," he told reporters. "You should not try to count the chickens before they hatch, as somebody said." North Korea is under pressure to accept a deal -- not least from its communist neighbour and long-time supporter China, which is angered by the North's nuclear brinkmanship. Pyongyang's tight-lipped diplomats have not publicly spelled out their price for accepting a shutdown of Yongbyon, which produces plutonium that can be refined for nuclear weapons. But a Tokyo-based newspaper close to North Korea suggested the wary regime also wants Washington to prove its goodwill. "North Korea's position is that it will take corresponding measures if the early steps can demonstrate that the United States' abandonment of a hostile policy is irreversible," the Choson Sinbo said. Hill said he and North Korea's envoy Kim discussed energy, economic issues, and future disarmament steps on Friday. But North Korea's policy-makers appeared divided over whether to accept nuclear disarmament, Hill said. While many in the isolated communist state saw them as a liability, he said, "Alas, I don't think that is a universal view in the DPRK." The DPRK, or Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is the North's formal name.
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