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| Thursday, 4 November 2004 |
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N.Korea lays out terms for rejoining six-way nuclear talks: report HONG KONG, Wednesday (AFP) North Korea has spelled out its terms for rejoining six-nation talks on its nuclear program, saying the outcome of the US vote will have no bearing on resolving the crisis, a report here said Wednesday. The isolated Stalinist state said talks would depend on the US dropping human rights demands on Pyongyang and abandoning sanctions. The remarks were made by Han Song Ryol, ambassador in charge of US affairs and a North Korean envoy to the United Nations, in a report in the Hong Kong-based Asian Wall Street Journal. Han told the newspaper he saw little merit in US presidential hopeful John Kerry's policy of pursuing bilateral talks with Pyongyang, calling such a move a mere "change in formality". "It's not a matter of who will be elected as the next US president, but rather a matter of who has the political will to change the US's DPRK (North Korea) policy," Han reportedly said. To restart stalled talks with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, Han demanded that Washington drops North Korea's inclusion among the "axis of evil" countries and abandon sanctions on Pyongyang, the report said. He also said progress would not be made without the US repeal of a law passed by President George Bush calling on the country to allow freedoms of expression. The ongoing crisis began in October 2002 when US officials said North Korea had admitted in a bilateral meeting to pursuing a covert uranium-enrichment program. North Korea, however, has since denied such a program, and has demanded food and energy aid and diplomatic concessions in return for refreezing an older, plutonium-based nuclear arms program, mothballed in 1994. |
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