Allies Ask N. Korea to Return to Talks

SEOUL —  The United States, Japan and South Korea asked North Korea on Saturday to return to the negotiating table after the first formal meeting of the three allies since Pyongyang declared that it possessed nuclear weapons.

In a response to the gauntlet North Korea threw down this month, the allies pledged their support for six-nation talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. The negotiations had been taking place in Beijing since November 2003.

“We urge the North to return to the talks without delay,” said South Korea’s deputy foreign minister, Song Min Soon.

Song said there had been no discussion of economic sanctions or other measures against Pyongyang in Saturday’s meeting at the Foreign Ministry offices in the South Korean capital.

Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, was recently tapped to be the United States’ lead negotiator on North Korea. He made no further comment other than to say that it had been an “excellent meeting.”

At the last round of talks in June, the U.S. presented Pyongyang with a plan to freeze and dismantle its nuclear program. North Korea, however, demanded financial and political concessions before it did so and refused to attend additional talks scheduled for September.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s regime formally announced Feb. 10 that it not only had nuclear weapons, but it was suspending its participation in the six-nation negotiations until the U.S. dropped its “hostile policy” toward the country.

At the meeting Saturday, the allies said North Korea should show up without strings attached.

“It is important for North Korea to return to six-nation talks without any conditions,” said Kenichiro Sasae, director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

As hosts of the talks and North Korea’s only major ally, China also has been trying to persuade North Korea to return to negotiations. A Chinese delegation met with Kim in Pyongyang last week. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told reporters Friday in Kazakhstan that on the basis of that meeting, China believed that North Korea would resume talks.

Analysts say North Korea is playing hard to get in order to win economic aid from the international community.

“At the end of the day, I think North Korea will return to the negotiating table, but only when they have milked everything and gotten as many bribes and concessions for showing up,” said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies in Honolulu.

Cossa and other critics say the international community should be more robust in its response to North Korea, urging that South Korea suspend economic cooperation projects and China cross-border trade until Pyongyang attends the talks.