Int'l community reacts to DPRK announcement to return to nuclear talks
2/11/2006 16:58
The international community yesterday responded to the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s announcement that it will return to the six-party
talks. The newly-designated United Nations secretary-general yesterday urged
the DPRK to renounce nuclear weapons and said the United States and Japan should
prepare for normalization of relations with Pyongyang if it did so. Speaking
to reporters following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow,
the incoming UN chief, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said the DPRK
should renounce nuclear weapons and allow UN inspectors back. The US and
Japan must "prepare for the normalization of relations" with the DPRK in
response to measures that Pyongyang should take to diminish fears over its
nuclear program, said Ban. The European Union welcomed the DPRK announcement
and reiterated its support for a peaceful solution to the crisis. The EU has
consistently urged the DPRK to return to the six-party talks without delay and
without predictions, Finland, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency,
said in a statement. "The EU will continue to actively support efforts to
resolve the security issue on the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner," it
said. The US said on Wednesday that the DPRK will have a chance to seek
access to its frozen overseas bank accounts when six-party talks are
resumed. "We will seek to address the issue in the context of the six-party
talks," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a news
briefing. However, the spokesman noted that the best way to deal with the
issue is to get at the root causes, which he said were Pyongyang's "illicit
behavior." US President George W. Bush on Tuesday hailed the the DPRK's
planned return to the six-party talks on its nuclear program. "I am pleased
and I want to thank the Chinese," Bush told reporters at the White House
after meeting with Andrew Natsios, his special envoy on Sudan. Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday that his country would continue its own
sanctions on the DPRK even after the six-party talks resume. Abe appreciated
the DPRK for its decision to return to the negotiation table, but insisted
that Japan would not stop its unilateral sanctions until the issues such as
missile launches, nuclear tests and abduction of Japanese nationals were
resolved. The Singaporean government hailed on Wednesday the DPRK's
announcement of the resumption of the six-party talks on the nuclear program on
the Korean Peninsula. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it is a
welcome and encouraging development and that Singapore hopes the DPRK and the
other parties will work out a comprehensive solution to the nuclear issue. At
the invitation of China, the heads of delegations to the talks from China, the
DPRK and the United States had an informal meeting in Beijing Tuesday and
agreed to resume the six-party talks soon at a time convenient to the six
parties. Three weeks after its nuclear tests, the DPRK said on Wednesday that
it was returning to six-party talks. "The DPRK decided to return to the
six-party talks on the premise that the issue of lifting financial sanctions
will be discussed and settled between the DPRK and the US within the framework
of the six-party talks," said a spokesman of the DPRK Foreign Ministry DPRK
had refused to return to six-party talks since last October due to the
US-imposed financial sanctions against it, and claimed that it would not return
to talks unless the US lifts financial sanctions imposed on a Macau-based bank
and DPRK companies, for alleged counterfeiting and other illegal
activities.
xinhua
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