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North Korea has indicated it is ready to “deal in specifics” about giving up its newly proven nuclear arsenal when it returns to six-party disarmament negotiations next week in Beijing, the top US negotiator said.
But Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill predicted “very tough negotiations” when the talks resume at the weekend after a 13-month break and said there were no guarantees the process would achieve its goal of convincing North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
“At this point I can't tell you if that strategic choice has been made or not,” said Hill, who has held two rounds of preliminary talks with the North Koreans since they agreed to return to the negotiating table after carrying out their first test of a nuclear bomb on October 9.
Hill told reporters that during one round of meetings on November 27 and 28 in Beijing, “there were indications that the DPRK, the North Koreans, would be prepared to deal in specifics at the coming round.”
“The Chinese have also been in direct contact with the North Koreans on several occasions, and they also have reason to believe that we will see some specific ideas for moving ahead,” he said.
Hill declined to provide any details of what specific steps the US and its allies would demand of North Korea or what incentives they would offer during the negotiations.
But he stressed that Washington would not allow the talks to drag on while North Korea pursues its nuclear program.
“It's our very strong view that in this first round, which starts over the weekend, we want to show some significant progress.”
The six-party talks — involving China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Russia and the United States — started in 2003 to stop Pyongyang from acquiring nuclear weapons.
North Korea signed on to a vaguely worded joint statement in September 2005, pledging to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for security guarantees, energy assistance and improved relations with the West.
But North Korea pulled out two months later, apparently to protest US sanctions imposed on a Macau-based bank, Banco Delta Asia, for allegedly laundering money and circulating counterfeit US 100 dollar bills on behalf of the cash-strapped communist Pyongyang regime.
It then conducted its first nuclear test, triggering global condemnation — including from closest ally China — and unprecedented sanctions agreed by the United Nations.
Hill said China's pressure was a critical element in North Korea's decision to resume negotiations and that Washington's and Beijing's goals in the talks “are pretty close to identical — complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula.
“We need concrete progress. We need a sign that we have moved off of the pages of the September agreement and on to the ground of the Korean peninsula,” he said.
The US diplomat said it was not clear if North Korea's notoriously unpredictable leadership agreed to resume talks due of the bite of UN sanctions or “because they have exploded a nuclear device and they feel very strong as a result of that”.
But Hill said he had made clear to the North Koreans already that “we do not consider them a nuclear power and we will not consider them a nuclear power.”
The UN sanctions, which include a trade embargo on nuclear and weapons-related material and luxury goods, will remain in place during the negotiations, he said.
But in a concession to Pyongyang, the US has agreed to hold simultaneous discussions in Beijing on the Banco Delta Asia sanctions, he said.
A US Treasury official will lead those talks for Washington.
Hill said he would travel Friday to Tokyo for preparatory talks with the Japanese and could also visit Seoul before heading to Beijing, where informal talks will continue among all parties through the weekend prior to the formal start of negotiations on Monday.
“I'm not here to predict success or to express optimism, but I'll have a much better picture of that probably a week from now,” he said.
