Six-party talks not likely resume soon

Despite the absence of North Korean provocations for more than a month, there was no contact between South and North Korea or between North Korea and the United States during the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference held on Friday and Saturday. “North Korea will not resume the six-party talks before resolving issue with the United States,” Pyongyang announced.

“As we announced many times, the six-party talks is not valid anymore,” reportedly said North Korean Foreign Ministry’s Director General of North America Affairs Choi Sun Hee in her speech during a closed session on easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. “We will have no choice but to continue developing nuclear programs if the United States does not abandon its hostile policies against our country and make a right choice to peacefully coexist with North Korea.”

“Our nuclear weapons are not subject to negotiations as long as the United States is not ready to accept our country as a nuclear state,” said Choi during the “Security in North East Asia” session, demanding Washington to recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear power.

In response, U.S. Department of State East Asia and Pacific Affairs Bureau spokesperson Katina Adams urged the North to abandon its nuclear weapons, saying that Washington will never recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear state.

In-Chan Hwang hic@donga.com