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`6-party talks can resume if N.K. halts nuclear activities`

`6-party talks can resume if N.K. halts nuclear activities`

Posted October. 23, 2014 03:23,   

한국어

Sydney Seiler, U.S. special envoy on the six-party talks with North Korea, said Tuesday that Washington could consider resuming the stalled six-party talks on the North`s nuclear program if Pyongyang postpones its nuclear and missile launch tests and suspends its nuclear program.

Asked about precondition for the resumption of the six-nation talks, during a seminar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which marked that the 20th anniversary of the 1994 U.S.-North Korea Geneva Agreement, Seiler said, "In terms of what the other countries would do, imagine a scenario in which the DPRK announces its returning to six-party talks, it agrees to a moratorium on nuclear tests, on missiles launches, halt to its nuclear programs. The entire world would see that as a fundamental change in North Korea`s orientation toward denuclearization."

He also said that while the U.S. aims to achieve "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement (CVID)" of the North`s nuclear program, it views that there a realistic course for denuclearization.

The remarks are interpreted as Washington`s signal that it can lower the preconditions for the six-party talks` resumption from nuclear abandonment and disablement to a halt in nuclear activities. South Korea`s position had been that the six-party talks could be resumed until the North takes nuclear disablement measures and other additional actions. The United States and Japan also had the same position. North Korea took actions to disable its nuclear facilities, including demolishing the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, under the February 13, 2007 agreement with the United States. However, Pyongyang restored the facilities amid frictions with Washington and Seoul over verification issues.

Washington will return to the negotiation track that lasted for two years from 2007 if Pyongyang shows its sincerity over denuclearization talks, and North Korea can demonstrate its denuclearization commitment by halting its nuclear activities and placing a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests, according to Seiler on Tuesday. The North can start from halting its nuclear activities and move on to disablement, dismantlement and the ultimate nuclear abandonment, he said.

However, it remains to be seen whether the North will react positively to the U.S. proposal to revive the six-party talks, given Pyongyang`s allergic responses to the mention of nuclear abandonment by the international community. The North has been seeking nuclear and economic development together since 2013.