WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Thursday for the first
time admitted it was scaling back its demands on North
Korea in a bid to break a diplomatic stalemate on ending
Pyongyang's nuclear arms drive.
The top Asia hand at the US National Security Council, Dennis
Wilder, said North Korea was not "off the hook" on fully declaring
its atomic programs, but that proliferation issues would be
"handled in a different manner."
And US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an apparent
concession to Pyongyang, indicated the entire overdue
declaration might not be made public.
In another turnaround, she hinted that US sanctions
against North Korea could be removed even before the hardline
communist state's nuclear programs or proliferations activities
were verified independently.
"Verification can take some time," she told reporters.
North Korea has been pushing the United States to remove it from
the blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.
Rice said the document incorporating North Korea's proliferation
activities could be kept private, allowing Pyongyang to
save face.
"There will be, undoubtedly, briefings for Congress," on any
final arrangement, she said, warning: "This is a diplomatic matter
and not everything in diplomacy is public."
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said later that the document would be published "in some form."
Washington wants North Korea to clear up suspicions about an
alleged secret uranium enrichment program and suspected
proliferation to Syria. North Korea denies both charges.
For months, Washington had demanded that Pyongyang detail all of
its nuclear activities, including any proliferation of nuclear
know-how, in a "complete and correct" declaration North Korea had
agreed to provide by December 31, 2007.
The declaration was part of a February 2007 landmark deal
grouping China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United
States.
Under the agreement, Pyongyang has shut down and begun disabling
its key atomic plant in return for energy aid and major diplomatic
and security benefits that could eventually mean removal from the
state sponsors of terrorism list.
The US government is eager to see the denuclearization drive
completed before President George W. Bush leaves office in January
2009. The North tested a nuclear bomb in October 2006.
On Wednesday, the United States said it was working with its
diplomatic partners on a new mechanism to scrutinize any nuclear
declaration by North Korea.
The announcement of the new verification measure came amid
criticism of a reported prospective deal reached earlier this month
between US and North Korean envoys, which caused a great deal of
skepticism among experts.
They accused Washington of back-tracking on the terms of the
original accord.
But Rice has denied the existence of such a deal, and insisted
Thursday: "The outcome we and our partners require is a full
accounting from North Korea of all its nuclear programs, including
any uranium and nuclear proliferation activities.
"I want to emphasize that we are at the beginning of a very
complex process, not the end, a process that must lead to the
actual removal, for the first time in history, of nuclear material
from North Korea and verifiable end to its nuclear programs."
Wilder confirmed the United States had had "side negotiations"
on the proliferation issue with North Korea and was sending an
experts group back to Pyongyang next week "to see if we can make
progress on the declaration."
Earlier Thursday, South Korea's new chief nuclear negotiator Kim
Sook said the disarmament talks with Pyongyang were "reaching a
critical stage."
"We are pushing to resume the six-party talks as soon as the
declaration is submitted. All participatory countries agree to this
idea," Kim told a briefing.
Hopes of breaking the impasse have emerged since last week when
top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill and his North Korean
counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan met in Singapore to debate the form of the
declaration.
If North Korea provides the nuclear declaration, the parties
could move to implement the final phase of dismantling its nuclear
program and materials.
http://afp.google.com/article
I don't know what is happening behind the scenes, there is at
the present not enough information available for me to analyse this
event, but the DPRK never fails to amaze me with their ability to
make USA kowtow.
USA don't dare to touch DPRK.
Other countries, it dares to touch.
DPRK, never.
He is a true master, Kim Jong Il.
