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Six Nations Aiming At Breakthrough in Beijing
The six-party talks on nuclear disarmament of North Korea started in Beijing September 27, 2007. This round will be decisive if the negotiators agree on the schedule for disabling the country’s nuclear programs. But attaining this target won’t be easy.
En route to the crucial concord, the six countries at talks – Russia, the United States, Japan, both Koreas and China that is the host country – will have to get over quite a number of hidden dangers. First, Washington suspects Pyongyang in having the secret program of uranium enrichment. The arguments are simple – making uranium bomb would be easier than the plutonium one and North Korea has substantial reserves of uranium ore. Moreover, North Korea is said to be buying worldwide material and equipment to manufacture facilities for uranium enrichment.
The list of suspected exporters is vast and Russia is one of the suspects. So, Russia’s negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov took pains yesterday to dispel suspicions. The diplomat blankly denied the reports of South Korean Yonhap news agency that Russia had sold to North Korea 150,000 tons of aluminum pipes that could be used to manufacture uranium enrichment centrifuges.
But all distrust notwithstanding, the diplomats of China and South Korea look forward to a breakthrough. North Korea is ready to make certain concessions provided Washington responds, said a source with South Korean Foreign Ministry. The cause of the optimism was the meeting of top U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill with top North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan held right before the talks and the following remarks of Hill. Hill said North Korea could move ahead to "disable" its nuclear arms programs by the end of this year, but it was important to remain focused.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 28, 2007
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