J-10
10-26-2004, 11:18 AM
U.S. Seeks Help on N.Korea Talks; Pyongyang Says No
Tue, Oct 26, 2004 Yahoo! News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=721&e=10&u=/nm/20041026/ts_nm/korea_north_powell_dc)
8 minutes ago Top Stories - *******
By Saul Hudson and Jack Kim
SEOUL (*******) - South Korea joined China on Tuesday in pressuring Washington to give more concessions to entice North Korea to resume talks on its nuclear programs but Secretary of State Colin Powell rebuffed the appeals.
The divisions undermined Powell's efforts on a tour of the region to create a united front among negotiating partners seeking to persuade North Korea to scrap its suspected weapons programs.
The top U.S. diplomat did win pledges on his three-country trip that ended Tuesday from Japan, China and South Korea that they would also exert their influence over North Korea to return to talks for the first time since June.
But North Korea remained defiant and said fresh talks were impossible.
The United States believes North Korea has a small number of nuclear weapons and has been criticized for failing to stop North Korea's development as three rounds of talks have made scant progress.
"I suggested ... that South Korea and the United States as well as other countries have close consultations to make a creative and realistic proposal so that North Korea will return to the forum of dialogue at the fourth round," South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told a news conference.
That sentiment echoed a similar appeal from China Monday and broke with the U.S. position, which has insisted there should be no new proposal after it allowed a June offer for South Korea and Japan to provide aid if North Korea began ending its programs.
Powell said a new round of talks depended on North Korea.
"Let's get going ... We hope that in the very near future the North Koreans will see it is in their interest to have the talks start again," Powell told the news conference.
Isolated and impoverished North Korea chose the moment of the news conference in the capital of its rival, Seoul, to issue another tirade against the United States, which it says is planning to invade -- especially since President Bush bracketed it with Iran and pre-war Iraq in an "axis of evil."
North Korea said Washington was using the Nov. 2 presidential election to employ a "sleight of hand to mislead the public opinion at home and abroad and garner support from more electors," the North's official KCNA news agency said.
"It is clear to everyone that it is impossible to open the talks now that the U.S. is becoming evermore undisguised in its hostile policy toward the DPRK while totally denying its dialogue partner and pressuring it," it said. The DPRK is North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Powell addressed those fears head-on. "We don't intend to attack North Korea. We have no hostile intent, notwithstanding their claims," he told reporters.
Washington suspects Pyongyang is holding back from restarting the stalled talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the United States in the hope that Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) will win the election and open bilateral talks that might lead to more U.S. concessions.
Powell's diplomacy came against the backdrop of increased tension on the world's most heavily fortified frontier after South Korea said it had found a hole cut in a border fence.
However, a South Korean investigation late Tuesday suggested an unidentified person crossing into the North rather than North Korean agents infiltrating into the South.
Tue, Oct 26, 2004 Yahoo! News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=721&e=10&u=/nm/20041026/ts_nm/korea_north_powell_dc)
8 minutes ago Top Stories - *******
By Saul Hudson and Jack Kim
SEOUL (*******) - South Korea joined China on Tuesday in pressuring Washington to give more concessions to entice North Korea to resume talks on its nuclear programs but Secretary of State Colin Powell rebuffed the appeals.
The divisions undermined Powell's efforts on a tour of the region to create a united front among negotiating partners seeking to persuade North Korea to scrap its suspected weapons programs.
The top U.S. diplomat did win pledges on his three-country trip that ended Tuesday from Japan, China and South Korea that they would also exert their influence over North Korea to return to talks for the first time since June.
But North Korea remained defiant and said fresh talks were impossible.
The United States believes North Korea has a small number of nuclear weapons and has been criticized for failing to stop North Korea's development as three rounds of talks have made scant progress.
"I suggested ... that South Korea and the United States as well as other countries have close consultations to make a creative and realistic proposal so that North Korea will return to the forum of dialogue at the fourth round," South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told a news conference.
That sentiment echoed a similar appeal from China Monday and broke with the U.S. position, which has insisted there should be no new proposal after it allowed a June offer for South Korea and Japan to provide aid if North Korea began ending its programs.
Powell said a new round of talks depended on North Korea.
"Let's get going ... We hope that in the very near future the North Koreans will see it is in their interest to have the talks start again," Powell told the news conference.
Isolated and impoverished North Korea chose the moment of the news conference in the capital of its rival, Seoul, to issue another tirade against the United States, which it says is planning to invade -- especially since President Bush bracketed it with Iran and pre-war Iraq in an "axis of evil."
North Korea said Washington was using the Nov. 2 presidential election to employ a "sleight of hand to mislead the public opinion at home and abroad and garner support from more electors," the North's official KCNA news agency said.
"It is clear to everyone that it is impossible to open the talks now that the U.S. is becoming evermore undisguised in its hostile policy toward the DPRK while totally denying its dialogue partner and pressuring it," it said. The DPRK is North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Powell addressed those fears head-on. "We don't intend to attack North Korea. We have no hostile intent, notwithstanding their claims," he told reporters.
Washington suspects Pyongyang is holding back from restarting the stalled talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the United States in the hope that Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) will win the election and open bilateral talks that might lead to more U.S. concessions.
Powell's diplomacy came against the backdrop of increased tension on the world's most heavily fortified frontier after South Korea said it had found a hole cut in a border fence.
However, a South Korean investigation late Tuesday suggested an unidentified person crossing into the North rather than North Korean agents infiltrating into the South.