Breaking the ice
July 28, 2011
The meeting between delegations led by North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan and US special envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth is scheduled to be held at the US mission to the United Nations on Thursday, July 28. The discussions aim to build on last week's talks between nuclear negotiators from North and South Korea in Indonesia, the first such meeting since disarmament talks collapsed in 2008.
Washington says it will be looking for signs that Kim Jong-Il's government is serious about seeking peace. Kim Kye Gwan and Stephen Bosworth are expected to discuss improving US-North Korean ties and ways to relaunch the six party talks between North Korea and the US, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 after having agreed in principle during six party talks in 2005 to scrap its nuclear weapons program. North Korea walked out of those negotiations in late 2008.
Surprise meeting
The meeting between Kim and Bosworth was announced after the nuclear envoys of South and North Korea held a surprise meeting on the sidelines of an Asian Security Conference in Bali, Indonesia. US State Department referred to the Bali meeting as constructive but added that the North needs to do more.
North Korea's official news agency said in a commentary Wednesday that a peace agreement with the United States formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War could possibly become a first step to peace on the Korean Peninsula and towards denuclearization. North and South Korea fought a bitter war, with the US backing the South. The two countries are still technically at war as no formal peace treaty has ever been signed.
Just hours before the start of the talks, the North's UN envoy said the United States was aiming through a proposed missile defense shield to gain "absolute nuclear superiority and global hegemony over the other nuclear power rivals." Ambassador Sin Son Ho said the shield that the United States wants to build over Eastern Europe showed that the United States has no moral justifications to lecture other countries about nuclear proliferation. He warned that the shield could spark a new nuclear arms race.
Six party talks
Efforts to restart the six party talks have been hindered by two deadly border incidents last year which Seoul blames on its neighbour. The North's disclosure last November of a uranium enrichment plant is another complicating factor.
Meanwhile, North Korea is preparing a rare military exercise involving its army, navy and air force that could be launched this week in the tense Yellow Sea, reports in South Korea said. A government source quoted by the South's Yonhap news agency said the North had assembled about 20 navy vessels including landing craft off the western port of Nampo and deployed MiG-21 fighters to Onchon airbase in the same area. A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said he had no information on the reports, which had come just four days after the surprise meeting between nuclear envoys from the two Koreas.
July 27 is the 58th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting between North and South Korea.
Author: Sachim Gaur (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Sarah Berning