| The United States has taken a more conciliatory
tone with the North Koreans this week, offering the possibility of energy
and agricultural aid for the impoverished country if it gives up its nuclear
hopes. But Washington has refused to make any guarantees to Pyongyang.
Roh also said he thought North Korea, one
of the most closed nations in the world, was serious about reforming its
decrepit economic system. "I think North Korea is sincere about opening
up and reforming because they have no choice," he said.
Roh has said he wants South Korea to play
a prominent role in resolving the crisis over North Korea's nuclear development.
South Korea has said it would use its contact
with the North to press for an end to its nuclear programs, but a Northern
official was quoted on Friday as saying that Pyongyang would refuse to
discuss the nuclear issue in Cabinet-level talks in Seoul next week.
"The nuclear issue should be resolved through
talks between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and
the United States," Cho Chung-han, deputy bureau chief of the Secretariat
of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, was
quoted as saying. "It cannot be resolved by South Koreans."
The secretariat handles relations with
South Korea. Cho's comments appeared Thursday in the Choson Sinbo, the
newspaper of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents
in Japan.
Losyukov, the Russian envoy, said that
Washington-Pyongyang negotiations should be opened. But Russia's Interfax
news agency later quoted the Foreign Ministry's public affairs office as
saying Moscow did not intend to play mediator.
China has offered to host such talks.
"Dialogue between the United States and
the DPRK is necessary," Losyukov said, referring to North Korea by the
initials of its formal name. "This is mainly an issue between the United
States and the DPRK, but other countries also have a major interest in
the situation."
Losyukov said it was a time for "quiet
diplomacy" and added that it "is important to refrain from loud statements
and from further antagonism of the sides."
South Korea on Friday accepted North Korea's
proposal on opening talks Jan. 22-25 on connecting cross-border railways
and roads. The talks, which will overlap with North-South meetings in Seoul,
will take place in Pyongyang.
The Koreas, divided since 1945, have agreed
to build two sets of railways and roads across their border. North Korea
proposed a reopening of the talks on Thursday in pursuit of joint projects
that would bring badly needed cash.
The talks will focus on such issues as
South Korea's contribution of construction materials. South Korea has already
agreed to provide material assistance, including bulldozers and cement,
to the North for its part in the construction.
The project, the most visible product of
a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, has suffered delays in recent months
amid tensions between North Korea and the United States.
The North also issued a lengthy chronology
of the nuclear dispute Friday on its official news agency, KCNA, blaming
the United States for the impasse and dismissing as a "rumor" Washington's
assertion that Pyongyang admitted in October to having a secret weapons
program.
Pyongyang also mixed provocative statements
with offers to negotiate. In a KCNA dispatch monitored by South Korea's
Yonhap news agency, the North said it was prepared for talks with Washington.
"There is no reason why they cannot resolve
this issue through direct negotiations with us," the commentary said.
In addition to the Cabinet-level talks,
the North and South also planned to reopen Red Cross talks on reunions
for family members separated when the peninsula was divided in 1945. The
meetings will take place at the North's Diamond Mountain resort on Jan.
20-22.
|
