AP News, February 9th, 2007
Envoys to international talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program struggled Friday to find a compromise as differences emerged over a Chinese proposal on how to begin the disarmament process. Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's top negotiator said he felt there was no prospect of an agreement late Friday on the draft on how to implement a 2005 agreement that calls for Pyongyang to disarm in exchange for security guarantees and aid.
"There are some parts in which we had progress but on others we ran into difficulty," Sasae told reporters after daylong meetings with the other delegates.
"We will continue with the talks, but at this point in time I don't feel there is a prospect of reaching an agreement," he said without elaborating.
Earlier Friday, the main U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, and his North Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, suggested the differences were not insurmountable.
"I think we can be cautiously optimistic," Hill said after a two-hour lunch meeting with Kim, the first bilateral session between the two sides at this week's talks.
Kim said the meeting led to agreement on some unspecified issues, although there were still issues to overcome. "We are going to make more efforts to resolve them," Kim said.
"As someone said, don't waste your energy trying to count chickens before they hatch," he said, quoting remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made Thursday in Washington.
Late Thursday after the first day of talks, China distributed a draft agreement to the nuclear envoys from China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States.
The proposal _ presented after North Korea agreed in principle to take initial steps to disarm _ would grant the communist nation unspecified energy aid for shutting down its main nuclear facilities within two months, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
Officials declined to confirm details of the draft.
Hill said earlier Friday he saw "differences" among the delegations over the draft deal.
"Opinions were expressed around the room, sometimes divergent opinions on the Chinese draft," Hill said. "There are some differences of views among the various delegations."
A South Korean official also cautioned against being too optimistic. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said it is "not as easy as expected to produce a result due to differences in positions and a conflict of interests."
Both Hill and the South Korean official declined to elaborate on what the differences were.
But a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan said the North wants the U.S. first to show that it has permanently ceased its "hostile" policy toward Pyongyang.
"As conditions mature, (North Korea) can halt the operation of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities," the Choson Sinbo said, referring to the site of the North's main nuclear complex north of Pyongyang.
"The (North)'s position is that it can take corresponding measures when the U.S. takes steps to show that it irreversibly gave up its hostile policy," it said.
The report, carried on the paper's Web site, cited a "diplomatic source well versed in" the negotiations. The paper, with links to the government in Pyongyang, is considered one of the North's propaganda tools.
Any agreement on an initial set of reciprocal moves to implement a September 2005 accord _ in which North Korea pledged to disarm in exchange for aid and security guarantees _ would set the stage for the first tangible steps in the often-delayed six-nation process.
The 2005 deal, a broad statement of principles that did not outline any concrete steps for dismantling North Korea's nuclear program, was the only agreement since the negotiations began in 2003.
At the last session of the arms negotiations in December, following North Korea's Oct. 9 underground nuclear test, the North refused to even talk about its nuclear programs. Instead, it demanded the U.S. lift financial restrictions targeting alleged North Korean counterfeiting and money laundering.
