[USFK Forums] Divided Koreas call for quick implementation of nuclear agreement [AP]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, December 17, 2005]

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Divided Koreas call for quick implementation of nuclear agreemen

By Associated Press
Friday, December 16, 2005 - Updated: 08:14 AM

North Korea today signaled its willingness to quickly implement an agreement to abandon its nuclear programs but refused to directly commit to more six-nation nuclear negotiations during high-level talks with South Korea.

At talks in September, the North agreed to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for security guarantees and aid, but no progress has been made on carrying out the accord. North Korea has threatened to boycott further negotiations until the United States lifts financial sanctions against it for alleged money laundering and counterfeiting.

In the statement today, however, the two Koreas said the September agreement “has be to implemented soon ... for a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue in accordance to common security and benefits of the people.”

However, South Korea failed to secure a firm commitment from the North to rejoin the six-nation talks, which also include Japan, Russia and China.

In October, Washington sanctioned eight North Korean companies it said acted as fronts for proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The North denies the allegations.

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow labeled the North a “criminal regime” in remarks last week, saying it was the first government to take part in counterfeiting since Adolf Hitler’s Germany. The North said the remarks were tantamount to a declaration of war and called for Vershbow’s expulsion.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, head of the South Korean delegation to the inter-Korean talks, travels Sunday to Washington where he is expected to relay the North’s position and try to bring both sides back to the negotiating table.

The two Koreas also agreed today to increase economic cooperation and conduct more reunions of Koreans divided by their heavily fortified border. In addition, they pledged to hold military talks next year to prevent conflicts along the border.

Washington has strongly urged the South to link its economic cooperation with the North to progress at the nuclear talks. Recently, the United States and South Korea have publicly differed over Seoul’s sunshine policy” of engagement with its neighbor.

Since the first-ever summit of leaders of the divided Koreas in June 2000, ties between the two longtime rivals have significantly warmed. The talks this week on South Korea’s Jeju island were the 17th such high-level meeting. The Korean talks are frequently marked by last-minute haggling. The North’s delegation had originally been set to leave this morning, but delayed its departure to press its case for allowing South Korean visitors to visit politically sensitive places in North Korea.

The South has declined to let its citizens visit certain places due to concerns that they could be seen as glorifying the North’s regime and cult of personality around founding ruler Kim Il Sung. The subject was left out of the final statement Friday, and South Korean spokesman Kim Chun-sig said it was a “complex and sensitive issue.”

The issue of South Korean abductees and prisoners of war still believed to be held in the North wasn’t directly mentioned, although the sides said they would hold Red Cross talks before February to “discuss and resolve humanitarian issues of common interest.”

South Korea estimates 538 soldiers from the war were alive in the North as of December 2004. It also says the North is holding 486 South Korean civilians, mostly fishermen whose boats were seized since the war’s end. The North denies holding any war prisoners, saying the civilians defected voluntarily. The next high-level Korean talks were scheduled for late March in Pyongyang.

The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty.