Not on Pyongyang's terms
North Korea has finally consented to an open discussion on its nuclear programme with its neighbours and the United States, writes Anayat Durrani from Washington
North Korea has agreed to take part in multilateral talks on its nuclear weapons programme after months of pressing for one- on-one talks with the United States. North Korea said it will participate in the six-party talks provided a certain US State department official is not in attendance.
Pyongyang's foreign ministry spokesman called US Undersecretary of State John Bolton "human scum" for his criticism of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il. On a visit to South Korea a week before, Bolton, whose specialty is arms control, described the North's leader as a "tyrannical dictator" and described life in North Korea as "a hellish nightmare".
"While he lives like royalty in Pyongyang, [Kim Jong Il] keeps hundreds of thousands of his people locked in prison camps with millions more mired in abject poverty, scrounging the ground for food," he told an audience in the South Korean capital on Thursday.
North Korea did not let Bolton's comments go by unnoticed, unleashing more than a few choice words against the American official. According to the North's KCNA news agency, a North Korean Foreign Ministry Official was reported as saying that, "On the basis of a serious analysis of Bolton's outcries in light of his political vulgarity and psychopathic condition ... we have decided not to consider him as an official of the US administration ... nor to deal with him."
The official also said that such a piece of "human scum" and a "bloodsucker" should not be allowed to participate in the talks. Despite these remarks, North Korea still plans to take part in the US proposed six-country talks. Participants are expected to be North Korea, the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. "There is no change in our stand on holding the six-party talks, including the bilateral talks between the DPRK and the US for the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula," the spokesman said.
North Korea on Saturday warned that it did not want the UN Security Council to play any role in the talks, saying such a move would "hamstring" efforts for dialogue and would be a "prelude to war". North Korea accused the UN of aligning itself with the US, and inching towards the possibility of imposing future economic sanctions on the country.
The US has always approached North Korea's nuclear issue as a regional threat and has therefore pressed for multilateral talks. North Korea, however, has long advocated bilateral talks with the US -- whom it perceives as a major threat to security -- hoping to achieve a guarantee that it will not be attacked. North Korea believes a deal could be made with the US to halt its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for aid and security. Washington has said it is in favour of bilateral talks but only within the framework of a multilateral session.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said America will pursue the diplomatic route to address the nuclear issue, and has no plans to end the Stalinist rule of Kim Jong Il. Powell said the talks can alleviate North Korea's fears of a US invasion. "Our policy, the president's policy, is to work diplomatically with our partners and the North Koreans to find a diplomatic political solution," Powell said in an interview with selected US media outlets on Friday.
"What North Korea has been doing is in direct contravention to understandings and agreements they have with some of their neighbours," Powell said. "And therefore, North Korea has to explain and answer to China, South Korea, Japan, Russia, the United States the nature of their policies and everybody has an equity." No date has yet been set for the talks, which are expected to take place in Beijing, possibly in the first week of September. It will be the second time this year that China plays host to talks on North Korea's nuclear issue. In April, North Korea and the US convened in China for three-party talks but failed to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. President George W Bush praised China's President Hu Jintao who sent an envoy to Pyongyang last month and convinced North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to agree to a second round of negotiations. Bush described North Korea's willingness to participate in multinational talks as "good progress". He said, "We're upbeat about the fact that others are assuming responsibility for peace besides the United States of America."
"There are now five nations and North Korea sitting at a table," Bush said of the scheduled talks. "The discussions will all be aimed at convincing Kim Jong Il to change his attitude about nuclear weaponry." Bush included North Korea as one of the countries in the "axis of evil" in his 2001 State of the Union address.
The road towards the much heralded multilateral talks began after North Korea admitted last October that it had a uranium-based nuclear weapons programme in violation of the 1994 accord signed by the Clinton administration. The US believes North Korea has one or two nuclear bombs and the capacity to manufacture several more after reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods.
Meanwhile, the Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Sunday that the US and Japan have proposed establishing an inspection team to ensure that North Korea dismantles its nuclear weapons programme, as reported by the Associated Press. The inspectors would come from the five nations participating in the talks with North Korea.
