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Six-nation talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear program will begin in China within one week, the United States said, ending a 13-month hiatus during which Pyongyang tested an atomic bomb.
The US State Department announced late on Sunday that the talks would resume “around December 16” in Beijing, with a firm date expected to be confirmed on Monday.
The talks — which involve the two Koreas, host China, the United States, Japan and Russia — started in 2003 in an effort to stop the North acquiring nuclear weapons.
North Korea had boycotted the talks since November last year in protest at financial sanctions against it for alleged money laundering and counterfeiting.
It then stunned the world on October 9 by conducting its first ever nuclear weapons test, triggering global condemnation — including from closest ally China — and UN sanctions.
The United States had insisted since then that it would not return to the talks until it was sure Pyongyang would make major concessions and significant progress would be made.
In announcing the December 16 date, US State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said Washington expected the talks to focus on implementing an agreement in September last year when the North agreed to give up its nuclear program.
In what was seen then as a major breakthrough, the North said it would end its nuclear weapons activities in return for security guarantees, energy and other aid.
However there was no word from any of the parties involved on Monday if the United States or North Korea had indeed given any ground, fueling pessimism that the talks may degenerate into another round of labored discussions that achieve nothing.
“I find it extremely difficult to be optimistic about this next round of talks,” said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS research institute in Hawaii and member of the Council on US-Korean Security Studies.
“It seems to me so many people are now just defining success as holding talks.”
Cossa said the North Koreans had made it clear they would return to talks only if the issue of the US sanctions imposed against it — which has seen 24 million dollars frozen in a Macau bank — was resolved.
However he said it was extremely unlikely the United States had given the North Koreans any indication that the sanctions would be lifted.
“It's very difficult for the United States to quietly make an agreement on this. It's a matter of (US) law. It can come to a conclusion that they should be lifted but it's pretty remote.”
A key policymaker in Japan's ruling party also warned Sunday that major compromise from Pyongyang was a must in the next round of negotiations.
“The six-party talks should not resume without careful consideration,” Syoichi Nakagawa, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's policy research council, told a television news program.
“It's okay if (North Korea) brings something about progress or contribution to peace. But otherwise, it's no good. We don't think that resuming talks itself is meaningful.”
China hosted two rounds of meetings in October and November between the North Korean and Chinese envoys to the talks in an effort to kickstart the negotiations.
China's foreign ministry had no comment when asked on Monday when the talks would resume.
