China calls for efforts to end nuclear standoff
By Hu Xiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-03-05 02:10

A senior Chinese nuclear official yesterday called on the United States to hold direct bilateral talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) under the framework of the six-party talks.

China's Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei leaves the U.S. embassy after he met U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill in a bid to restart the stalled six party talks to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions in Seoul March 3, 2005. [Reuters]

"To restart negotiations and make progress, I hope Washington agrees to hold bilateral talks with Pyongyang," said Yang Xiyu, director of the Office for Korean Peninsula Issue under the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Such talks with Pyongyang could be similar to those held separately between the United States and the four other parties China, Japan, Russia and the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the last three rounds of talks, he said. Beijing has hosted the three rounds of Six-Party Talks since August 2003.

It is reported that in the third round of talks last June, the US side had separate informal contacts with the DPRK delegation.

Yang's remarks follow Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Wu Dawei's visit this week to Seoul, during which top US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said that his country was ready to hold an earnest dialogue with Pyongyang within the framework of the six-party talks and discuss in detail any issue Pyongyang is concerned about.

All the parties concerned should make efforts to seek an end to the current standoff on resumption of negotiations, Yang said.

"It is the common responsibility of all the six parties involved to prevent the escalation of the tense standoff and resume talks to address the nuclear issue at an early date," he said.

Yang was referring to Pyongyang's statement on February 10 when it officially announced for the first time that it had manufactured nuclear weapons and said it decided to indefinitely suspend the six-party talks because of the US' hostile policy towards the DPRK.

However, during Chinese Communist Party envoy Wang Jiarui's visit to Pyongyang late last month, DPRK leader Kim Jong-il said that his country stood for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and would return to negotiations at any time if "conditions are met."

Some have blamed China for lack of progress, saying it did not bring its "great potential influence" and "economic leverage" on Pyongyang into full play during the talks.

Beijing, which is Pyongyang's most vital economic lifeline, has repeated that it objected to economic sanctions.

"We oppose sanctions or applying pressure; and we oppose war even more so," former top Chinese nuclear negotiator Wang Yi, who is now Chinese Ambassador to Japan, said at the first round of talks in 2003.

Yang said sanctions would be futile.

"Even if China has some so-called leverage on the issue, we won't abuse it since sanctions often pose new problems or cause collateral damage while failing to address what they are meant to achieve," he said.

Zhang Liangui, an expert on Korean studies with the Beijing-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, also warned that the DPRK people would be the first victims of sanctions which could lead a humanitarian disaster in the region.

Meanwhile, a flurry diplomatic activity is set to continue. A source from diplomatic circles in Beijing said that China's ambassador on the nuclear issue, Ning Fukui, will again visit Washington "very soon."

"China will continue to push forward the six-party talks based upon its long-consistent positions," Yang said.

Some experts on international relations also warned that if the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue remained unsettled for long, there would be only losers in the region.

"Now, the most important thing is to hold talks on a regular basis," said Zhang.

"Only by doing so can they address substantial problems on the issue at an early date; otherwise, the longer the process goes on, the tenser the situation will become," the expert said.

It is China's firm belief that DPRK's possession of nuclear weapons cannot diminish its security concerns. On the contrary, it will only trigger a negative fallout and ultimately damage DPRK's security interests.

(China Daily 03/05/2005 page1)

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