US diplomat: N.Korea nuclear path 'dead end'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-18 14:10

Christopher Hill, U.S. top negotiator and U.S. ambassador to South Korea, makes a speech during a Korea University's meeting in Seoul, Friday, Feb. 18, 2005. The United States and China unquestionably agree that North Korea must end its nuclear ambitions through six-nation disarmament talks, Washington's top negotiator on the issue said Friday. [AP]

SEOUL - The newly appointed lead U.S. negotiator to North Korean nuclear disarmament talks on Friday called Pyongyang's pursuit of atomic weapons a dead end and urged North Korea to return to the bargaining table.

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill told a breakfast meeting it was in the best interest of North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions and return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks, or risk even deeper isolation.

Hill was in Beijing on Thursday for meetings with his Chinese counterparts on the North Korean nuclear issue. In his first substantive comments since those talks, he said North Korea made a huge mistake in pursuing nuclear weapons because its economy had suffered and relations with leading powers had worsened.

"Holding nuclear weapons is a dead end for North Korea. They cannot make progress if they continue on this road," Hill said.

Pyongyang last week said explicitly for the first time it had nuclear weapons, arguing it needed them to deter what it saw as an increasingly hostile policy from the United States.

It also announced it was pulling out of six-party talks with South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

"The threat to the DPRK (North Korea) comes from their inability to develop a successful economy. These programs have cost them greatly and contributed to their economic decline," Hill said.

He declined to comment in detail about his meetings in Beijing, but echoed the stand of Beijing, saying the United States was committed to finding a diplomatic solution.

"We are absolutely dedicated to make this process work," he said. "There was absolute agreement on the need for North Korea to come back to the process," Hill said of his talks in Beijing.

Christopher Hill, U.S. top negotiator and U.S. ambassador to South Korea, reacts during a Korea University's meeting in Seoul, Friday, Feb. 18, 2005. The United States and China unquestionably agree that North Korea must end its nuclear ambitions through six-nation disarmament talks, Washington's top negotiator on the issue said Friday. [AP]

U.S. officials, while grateful to Beijing for having coaxed North Korea to the negotiating table three times, have increasingly faulted the Chinese privately for failing to exert even more influence.

The six parties have met three times in Beijing. A fourth round of talks planned for September 2004 never materialized, with Pyongyang saying Washington must first drop its hostile policy.

The South Korean envoy to the talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, spent Thursday in Beijing for meetings with Chinese officials and was to return to Seoul on Friday.

Hill and Song did not hold talks in Beijing.

North Korea has been playing a nuclear card to win diplomatic and economic benefits since the standoff emerged in October 2002 after Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to a secret program to enrich uranium in violation of a 1994 accord.

CHINA'S INFLUENCE

Pyongyang has since denied having such a program beyond its known plutonium plant.

North Korea seeks direct negotiations with the United States, which Washington rejects, although U.S. officials have held open the possibility of direct talks within the six-party framework.

Chinese said on Thursday that Beijing was committed to the six-party process and that putting pressure on the North was not a solution.

"We believe this kind of tactic will not create a resolution but instead raise tensions," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said in Beijing. "Complication of the issue will complicate the safety and security of the region."

The diplomatic flurry precedes a trip to North Korea on Saturday by senior Chinese Communist party official Wang Jiarui -- an apparent attempt to salvage the talks.

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