NEW YORK, Mar. 6 (Xinhua) -- Representatives of
the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) continued
their talks Tuesday on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsular and on steps
toward normalizing bilateral relations.
The full talks Tuesday between U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State Christopher Hill and DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan
followed a working dinner and private talks between the two on Monday evening,
when the two sides discussed Tuesday's agenda in a "constructive and
businesslike" atmosphere.
"We began to discuss the process of normalization
between North Korea and the United States," Hill said in a speech Tuesday
morning at the Japan Society.
He said there are a number of elements in the
process. One is that the DPRK is listed by Washington as a "state sponsor of
terrorism," and the other is that the DPRK is listed under a law called "Trading
With the Enemy Act."
The two sides will be discussing the political and
legal aspects of those problems, Hill said.
Many hailed the Kim-Hill talks as historic, but U.S.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack played down expectations of any
immediate breakthrough.
"I would expect that it ... would take some time in
order for that process to be completed," McCormack told reporters in Washington
on Monday.
"It would be a matter of building up trust, it would
be a matter of performance and today is just an initial discussion," McCormack
said.
On Monday morning, Kim visited the Korea Society and
stayed there for almost five hours with several U.S. nuclear and Korea experts
and former officials, including former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and
Madeleine Albright.
According to a statement issued after the meeting,
which was sponsored by the Korea Society and the National Committee on American
Foreign Policy, participants discussed a range of bilateral issues between the
United States and the DPRK in a friendly and forthcoming atmosphere.
The participants agreed that continuing dialogue of
this nature can be helpful in laying the foundation for improved official
relations to be established through forthcoming negotiations, the statement
said.
Meanwhile, it was reported by South Korea's Yonhap
news agency that Kim met South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo
during the past weekend.
Chun told reporters that "without a doubt, the North
(DPRK) is committed to taking initial steps" to implement its commitment in the
recent agreement to start dismantling its nuclear weapons program.
The long-expected bilateral talks follows the
six-party talks, involving China, the DPRK, the United States, South Korea,
Japan and Russia, that ended in Beijing on Feb. 13, 2007, with a joint statement
on the first step toward the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.
Under the document, the DPRK will shut down and seal
the Yongbyon nuclear facility, including the reprocessing facility and invite
back IAEA personnel to conduct all necessary monitoring and verifications.
In addition, the parties also agreed to the provision
of emergency energy assistance to the DPRK in the initial phase, and the
assistance equivalent to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil will commence within 60
days.
The normalization talks between the U.S. and the DPRK
occurs at a time when Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, prepares to visit Pyongyang on March 13 to discuss how to monitor
its promised dismantling of nuclear facilities.
Latest report:
Hill terms discussions on
comprehensive topics with DPRK as good
NEW YORK, March 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Tuesday that he and Vice Foreign
Minister Kim Kye-gwan of the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) had good
discussions on comprehensive topics in their two-day talks here aimed at
normalizing relations.
Both sides felt optimistic that the normalization
process was on the right track, Hill told reporters at a press conference after
his talks with Kim, the highest ranking DPRK official to visit the United States
since 2000.
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