U.S. urges N. Korea to return to 6-way talks

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Yonhap) -- The United States Tuesday urged North Korea to
return to six-party talks for the verifiable denuclearization of the reclusive
communist state.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood made the remarks in response to North
Korea's threat to boycott the multilateral nuclear talks for good after the U.N.
Security Council's adoption Monday of a council presidential statement to condemn
the North's rocket launch last week.
"I just want to basically refer you back to the U.N. Security Council
presidential statement that was issued, and this presidential statement made very
clear the position of the U.N. Security Council plus Japan," Wood said. "As you
know, the statement calls for an early resumption of the six-party talks, a
verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and full implementation of
the joint statement of 2005."
The North Korean Foreign Ministry said earlier in the day that it will never
again attend the six-party talks, will restart its nuclear reactor being disabled
under a six-party deal, will consider building light-water nuclear reactors and
strengthen its nuclear deterrent.
North Korea launched a rocket on April 5 and said it has successfully put a
communications satellite into orbit, although the U.S. and its allies see the
launch as a cover for a ballistic missile test.
The UNSC presidential statement is a compromise between the U.S. and its allies
and North Korea's two major allies, China and Russia, which did not want to
escalate tensions and sided with North Korea's claim it has the right to send a
satellite into space.
The statement, though not a legally binding resolution, has strong wording that
condemns the launch as contravention of U.N. Resolution 1718 and calls for early
resumption of the six-party talks, deadlocked over how to verify North Korea's
past and current nuclear activity.
It also demands that a committee present a list of North Korean firms and goods
to be subject to sanctions, which have been largely neglected due to lack of
proper implementation measures.
Wood stressed that the presidential statement represents not only the position of
the U.S. but also that of the international community.
"It was very clear what our position is with regard to the type of behavior the
North has been engaged in," he said. "I'm saying that right now this is what our
response is. And this is not just the U.S. response. This is the international
community's response to what the North has been doing."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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