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N Korea demands US policy shift


__Kratos__

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North Korea says the US must end its "hostile policy" towards Pyongyang for progress to be made when talks on its nuclear programme resume next week.

North Korea pulled out of negotiations in February 2004, and has since admitted stockpiling atomic weapons.

A North Korean official told the official Chinese Xinhua news agency that normalising relations with the US was key to resolving the impasse.

The US wants the North to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.

The spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry said Pyongyang was willing to settle the nuclear issue during the talks starting next Tuesday in Beijing, but only if the US met its conditions.

List of demands

The spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry said the US must end its "hostile policy of 'bringing down the DPRK's system'", referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The official reiterated Pyongyang's position that "not a single nuclear weapon will be needed for us if the US nuclear threat is removed".

He also demanded that Washington stay out of Pyongyang's "economic co-operation with other countries".

He then repeated calls for North Korea to be removed from a US list of states that sponsor terrorism, and that all sanctions against it be lifted.

Sanctions threat

The US has indicated that North Korea could face further sanctions if it fails to resolve the nuclear crisis, although it has stressed that it does not intend to attack the North.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, has said he expects progress at the Beijing talks.

North Korea agreed to return to talks after heavy international pressure.

Three rounds of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear capability were held in 2003 and 2004, but they were broken off amid North Korean complaints about "hostile" US policy.

The six countries involved are the two Koreas, China, the US, Japan and Russia.

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Crazy guys over there...

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A North Korean envoy said multinational talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programme had made no progress, as delegates ended their eight day of negotiation.

"The situation is bad," said Kim Kye-gwan, but added: "We will do our best to reach an agreement."

North Korea wants security guarantees and aid before it will scrap its programme, a condition the US rejects.

The talks, already at record length, are expected to continue into Wednesday.

In the first comment from the North Korean side since this round of talks began in Beijing, Mr Kim told reporters: "The talks lasted for long hours but produced no progress... There are some differences and confrontations over several issues."

Earlier, US envoy Christopher Hill also said there still remained "a lot of differences".

The six nations - the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan - are currently locked in deadlock over a new draft document written by China.

"We felt the second draft was actually better than the first draft. It clearly reflected the comments of all the parties," Mr Hill said.

But he added: "I need to be very clear that there are a lot of differences between the North Korean side on one hand and everyone else on the other hand."

Chief Japanese negotiator Kenichiro Sasae said the talks "have come close to the moment of truth", adding that it was up to North Korea to help make a breakthrough.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said one of the sticking points was North Korea's denial that it harboured a second, secret nuclear programme, in addition to the plutonium one it has admitted to.

"North Korea still does not acknowledge that it has a uranium enrichment programme," Mr Machimura said from Tokyo.

"The work on the wording of a joint statement is not going smoothly."

Sticking points

North Korea wants security guarantees and aid before it will scrap its nuclear programme. But the US wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions before any concessions are made.

North Korea also wants sanctions against it lifted, and what it sees as a US nuclear threat removed.

It says it will return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and re-admit international weapons inspectors if the crisis is resolved.

Heated exchanges were reported during the last few days about how the sequence of disarmament should proceed.

The crisis first erupted in 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of pursuing nuclear arms.

The stand-off deepened when Pyongyang withdrew from the NPT and announced earlier this year that it had nuclear weapons.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/worl...fic/4737045.stm

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N Korea insists on nuclear rights

North Korea's envoy to disarmament talks in Beijing says Pyongyang has the right to operate nuclear programmes for peaceful purposes.

Delegates say the demand has deadlocked work on a statement of principles for negotiations, aimed at persuading the North to give up its nuclear programme.

In return, Pyongyang wants aid and security guarantees.

But the US has always insisted that North Korea abandon its nuclear ambitions before concessions are made.

China said diplomats would meet again on Friday for an 11th day of talks.

The North Korean envoy, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye-gwan, said that delegates were "at a stalemate" in work on the statement of principles.

"We are for denuclearising, but we also want to possess the right to peaceful nuclear activities," Mr Kim said outside the talks, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Only the US opposed allowing Pyongyang a right enjoyed by other countries, he added.

Three previous rounds of talks have ended in failure.

US negotiator Christopher Hill said the US had done "everything we can do" during the Beijing talks.

He urged the North to sign the statement put forward by China and backed by four of the other nations involved in six-party talks with North Korea - the US, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

The two-page draft is seen as the last-ditch attempt to save the open-ended talks.

'Crucial stage'

Both Mr Hill and Mr Kim have expressed doubts that an agreement can be achieved.

However, earlier on Thursday, Mr Hill had said that the latest draft - sent overnight to all the teams - appeared to be getting "to the point where we can agree something".

He also suggested that the talks were approaching the final stages of discussions.

Japanese chief negotiator Kenichiro Sasae agreed that the negotiations "had come to a crucial stage".

According to South Korea's chief delegate Song Min-soon, the new draft contains statements on energy aid for North Korea, normalisation of relations with the US and Japan, and the provision of peaceful nuclear energy for the North.

The crisis first erupted in 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of pursuing an uranium enrichment project to make nuclear weapons.

The stand-off deepened when Pyongyang withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and announced earlier this year that it had plutonium-based nuclear weapons.

It continues to deny any uranium-based capability.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/worl...fic/4746607.stm

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Those demands sound resonable to me.

heh maybe you should read up on the way NK has treated the various talks.

if i recall correctly, they demand a whole bunch of crap and in return offer to behave, they get it (under clinton) and then they proceed to continue with the development of nuclear weapons. I mean they didn't suddenly start making them the moment Bush introduced a more hostile policy towards them. Screw it, sanction the crap out of them, cut off all aid and let the country colapse.

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^Indeed, meeting their demand would be no different then meeting the demands of terrorists.

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Yeah, that will happen.

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How about lifting sanctions to NK and let them be. They are none of our business and we are none of theirs. Once we lift all sanctions refuse to enter talks again and leave them alone.

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How about lifting sanctions to NK and let them be.  They are none of our business and we are none of theirs.  Once we lift all sanctions refuse to enter talks again and leave them alone.

774622[/snapback]

Yeah... SK couldn't be paying us to be there at all. We don't have bases there for no good reason... rolleyes.gif Commies suck! thumbsup.gif

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How about lifting sanctions to NK and let them be. They are none of our business and we are none of theirs. Once we lift all sanctions refuse to enter talks again and leave them alone.

you really don't know much about what has lead us up to this point do you?

hell, do you even know anything about North Korea other than it doesn't like the US?

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North Korea talks go into recess

China has said international talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme are to go into recess until the end of August.

It comes after delegates from the six nations involved remained deadlocked after a 13th day of negotiations.

North Korea has blamed the deadlock on the US. "We had to produce nuclear weapons because the US is threatening us with nuclear weapons," it said.

The US said North Korea's demand to use light-water reactors was the obstacle.

'Not on the table'

The two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia have been holding talks in China's capital, Beijing, since 26 July.

The US wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons in return for aid and security guarantees.

But North Korea insists it has the right to conduct nuclear activities as long as they are peaceful - for example, for generating electricity.

Speaking after the talks broke up, the chief US negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said North Korea's insistence on being allowed to have light-water reactors for energy purposes had prevented an agreement.

He said: "The issue came down to the DPRK [North Korea]. They not only want the right to use nuclear energy, but the right to use light-water reactors. That is simply not on the table."

Light-water reactors are capable of producing weapons-grade nuclear material.

Kim Kye-gwan, the chief North Korean delegate, blamed the US refusal to allow his country to maintain a peaceful nuclear programme for the deadlock.

The disagreement over "peaceful nuclear activity" was "one of the very important elements that led us to fail to come up with an agreement", he said.

'Positive progress'

Wu Dawei, Chinese chief negotiator and chairman of the talks, said they would resume in the week of 29 August, after the delegates had had a chance to return home for consultations.

He described the negotiations so far as useful and said those involved had "reached agreement in many aspects" .

"The six parties, in the spirit of mutual respect and equality, held serious, practical and in-depth discussions and consultations in a good atmosphere on the goal of the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, which led to better mutual understanding, broader common ground and positive progress," he said.

The six nations have struggled to agree on a joint statement that would provide for the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear programmes.

Mr Wu said he did not know when agreement would be reached but he believed it would happen "one day".

Fourth round

The US wants all the North's nuclear facilities dismantled before any concessions are made, and has said it is not prepared to compromise on the issue.

The nuclear crisis first erupted in 2002, when the US accused North Korea of pursuing an uranium enrichment project to make nuclear weapons.

The stand-off deepened when Pyongyang withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and tensions were raised further when it announced earlier this year that it had plutonium-based nuclear weapons.

The North continues to deny US reports of a uranium-based capability.

Three previous rounds of talks have ended in failure, but this fourth round has gone on for a much longer time, in what analysts saw as a sign that all sides seemed determined to find a solution.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/worl...fic/4127432.stm

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