US Offers No Attack Pact To N. Korea

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Courtesy Of: The Peninsula

Source: The Associated Press

Web Posted at 12/15/2006 10:24:14

http://thepeninsulaqatar.com

SEOUL • The United States has offered North Korea written security guarantees in an attempt to persuade it to dismantle its nuclear arsenal, a report said yesterday. Quoting diplomatic sources, Yonhap news agency said the proposal was made at meetings between US and North Korean officials on November 27 and 28 in Beijing to pave the way for the resumption of six-party nuclear disarmament talks.

The report could not be confirmed independently. The talks resume Monday in Beijing. “At the meeting, the US side reaffirmed it has no intention to attack or invade North Korea as was stated in the (2005) September joint agreement,” a diplomatic source was quoted as saying by Yonhap. “The US side suggested it could give such a security guarantee in a written form in the name of President Bush,” the source said. In return, North Korea should take specific steps, he said.

These reportedly include freezing its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon north of Pyongyang, allowing inspections by international watchdogs and shutting down its nuclear test site at Punggyeri in the northeast.

“Such a written security guarantee can be seen as a prelude to the normalisation of diplomatic ties between North Korea and the United States,” the source said. North Korea signed on to a vaguely worded statement in September 2005, pledging to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for security guarantees, energy assistance and improved relations with the West. But it pulled out of the talks two months later, protesting at US sanctions which froze its accounts in a Macau bank because of alleged counterfeiting and other illicit activities. It then conducted its first nuclear test in October, triggering global condemnation and United Nations sanctions. US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Wednesday that North Korea had indicated it was ready to “deal in specifics” about giving up its nuclear arsenal when it returns to the talks. But Hill, the chief US representative to the forum, predicted “very tough negotiations”, ahead.

Meanwhile, Japan warned yesterday that it would not offer aid to North Korea even if it gives up nuclear weapons unless it resolves a row over abductions of Japanese citizens.

Japan is one of six countries in talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear drive that are set to resume on Monday in Beijing after a 13-month hiatus during which North Korea tested an atom bomb. “Even if chair-country China makes an effort to resolve the nuclear and missile issues at the six-way talks, I want others to remember that Japan has the issue of abductions,” Foreign Minister Taro Aso said.

“I cannot say that things between Japan and North Korea are resolved unless this issue is resolved,” he told a parliamentary committee.

“Therefore, even if talks are concluded with some results and we are asked to offer our own contribution or a list of donations, we have no intention to accept that. That’s what we have to make sure of,” he said.

In a September 2005 statement that will be the basis for next week’s talks, impoverished North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear drive in exchange for security guarantees and aid.

Under a collapsed 1994 deal, Japan and South Korea were major contributors to a project to build light-water reactors in North Korea.

North Korea has admitted kidnapping Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies and handed over five victims and their families to Japan in 2002.