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Six-Party Talks with N. Korea to Resume Soon
The six-party talks on winding up the North Korea’s nuclear arms program may resume soon, said Christopher Hill, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and his country’s envoy to the negotiations.
At bilateral negotiations in Berlin, the United States and North Korea agreed on the need to resume the six-party talks as soon as possible, Christopher Hill said.
Even though no progress was attained at the previous December round, the base for the future advance was established, the U.S. negotiator made clear, according to AP.
The three-day talks of the United States and North Korea ended in Berlin January 18, 2007. The highlight was the terms for resuming six-party negotiations. North Korea requires from the United States to lift its financial sanctions, threatening otherwise to proceed with nuclear tests instead of negotiations.
The United States, however, is resolved to lift sanctions no sooner than North Korea drops its nuclear ambitions.
Of interest is that the parties came up with different interpretation of the Berlin meeting. Foreign Ministry of North Korea promulgated a statement about attaining some agreement with Washington and hinted at the U.S. financial sanctions. Hill said he knew nothing about it, but emphasized that the discussion was very useful and they agreed on the preliminary date of another bilateral gathering. The United States suggests holding it in New York.
Apart from the United States and North Korea, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea are participants of the six-party talks. Last time, the negotiators gathered in Beijing in December after a break of over a year. But they didn’t release any definite statements by the results of the talks, nor did they fix the date of their next get-together.
Getting ready for another round, North Korea is groping for support of the Kremlin. For this purpose, Pyongyang held bilateral negotiations in Moscow on January 21.
www.kommersant.com
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