North Korea has told a Chinese envoy it plans no further nuclear tests, South
Korean and Japanese media reported on Friday, raising hopes China's diplomacy
might draw its unpredictable neighbor back to talks.
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North Koreans load goods from a boat
onto a truck on the bank of the Yalu River near the North Korean town of
Sinuiju opposite the Chinese border town of Dandong, October 20,
2006.China and the United States pressed North Korea on Friday to return
to talks on ending its nuclear arms program and called for full
implementation of U.N. sanctions imposed on the country after its October
9 atomic test.[Reuters]
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But U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended an Asian tour to rally
support for U.N. sanctions on North Korea with few commitments on how the
restrictions would be implemented and uncertain the six-party talks would
resume.
"I can't answer whether they are serious about returning to six-party talks
or not," Rice told reporters in Beijing after three days of diplomacy in Japan,
South Korea and China. She said Pyongyang's tone was still belligerent.
North Korea's October 9 nuclear test sparked international condemnation and
led to last Saturday's U.N. Security Council vote to impose economic and weapons
sanctions.
The Japanese news agency Kyodo quoted Foreign Minister Taro Aso as saying he
had information, although not confirmed, that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
had said he would not conduct another test.
Highlighting North Korea's stance that it needs a nuclear deterrent, more
than 100,000 people rallied on Friday in the main square of Pyongyang to hail
the nuclear test.
"The nuclear test was an exercise of the independent and legitimate right of
the DPRK as a sovereign state," the North's official KCNA quoted Choe Thae-bok,
a senior member of the Workers' Party of Korea, as saying.
But a report by the South Korean news agency Yonhap that North Korea did not
plan another test reinforced the optimism of China's envoy over the prospects of
bringing Pyongyang back into the six-party talks.
"I understand he expressed clearly there was no plan to conduct nuclear
tests," Yonhap quoted a diplomatic source saying.
Chinese President Hu Jintao sent a team of diplomats led by State Councilor
Tang Jiaxuan to Pyongyang earlier this week as speculation mounted that the
communist state might be about to detonate a second nuclear device.
"Fortunately, my visit this time has not been in vain," Tang said at the
opening of his meeting with Rice in Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said Tang and the North Koreans also
discussed how to kick-start the talks, but Rice indicated that Washington and
Pyongyang were still poles apart on how to get back to the negotiating table.
COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY
The talks, which bring together the two Koreas, the United States, Japan,
Russia and China, stalled last November after Washington imposed restrictions on
Pyongyang's external financing after accusing it of counterfeiting money.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted an unidentified diplomatic source
in Beijing as saying Kim told Tang that Pyongyang would return to the talks if
Washington ended the financial sanctions.
Kim also expressed regret to Tang about the difficult position in which the
test had placed Beijing, it said.
China's Xinhua news agency quoted Tang as saying the United States should be
more flexible when dealing with North Korea, but Rice said the financial
sanctions would remain.
"The (US) president has made very clear at every turn that he is going to
defend the US currency," she said.
China said it would meet its UN obligations but did not say how. It fears
interdictions of Korean ships on the high seas, one measure included in the
sanctions, would worsen the crisis and provoke North Korea into stronger action.
Rice said she had been assured China would be "scrupulous" in inspecting
North Korean cargo on its border, but she would wait and see. "Let's just watch
what the Chinese do," she told reporters on Friday.
In South Korea, Rice failed to convince the government to abandon two
projects in the North which the United States says are providing cash to the
North Korean government.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said only that
his government would review them and see whether they were in accordance with
the UN resolution.
