N. Korea reaffirms boycott of nuclear talks

SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will make good on its pledge to quit the multilateral disarmament talks and bolster its nuclear deterrence despite sanctions from the United Nations, the country's leading newspaper said Wednesday.

"We state again that our country will no longer enter into the six-way talks and
will strengthen nuclear deterrence power in every way," the Rodong Sinmun,
published by the North's powerful Workers' Party, said in a commentary carried by
the country's official news agency. ""Under current situations, we are not
interested in the six-way talks any more."
The commentary said that the international community's punishment of North
Korea's rocket launch reminded it of the importance of beefing up its
self-defense measures.
It said the six-way talks lost all reason to exist after the U.N. Security
Council issued a presidential statement condemning the April 5 rocket launch. It
called the U.N. move a violation of the spirit of a historic
aid-for-denuclearization deal signed on Sept. 19 2005 that calls for respecting
the sovereignty of each nation. Under the six-way agreement, North Korea promised
to abandon its nuclear program in return for economic and political incentives.
"In the unjust and unstable world today, whose international law, relations, and
order are swayed by power, we can defend our sovereignty and show dignity and
prowess only through defensive nuclear deterrence capability," it added, accusing
the U.S., Japan, and other nations of attempting to draw concessions from
Pyongyang through increased pressure and sanctions.
Last week, a U.N. Security Council committee blacklisted three North Korean firms
suspected of being involved in Pyongyang's development and trade of missiles and
weapons of mass destruction.
It was the first concrete follow-up measure to the council's decision to
reactivate the 2006 resolution against the North's missile and nuclear tests.
North Korea, infuriated by the document, announced that it will never return to
the six-way talks also involving the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia, and
Japan. It also said that it has resumed reprocessing plutonium at its main
nuclear facilities in Yongbyon.
South Korean officials acknowledge difficulties in finding a breakthrough in the
stalemate but pin their hopes on the role of the U.S. and China.
They said Stephen Bosworth, Washington's point man on Pyongyang, is expected to
make a tour of Northeast Asia next month to discuss ways to revive the
denuclearization process.
"We have information that he is pushing for a trip to the region in May, but
detailed schedules have yet to be decided," a South Korean foreign ministry
official said on condition of anonymity.
He refused to predict whether Bosworth will visit Pyongyang. North Korea rejected
Bosworth's informal proposal to travel there during his Asia swing in March. He
was carrying a letter from President Barack Obama to the North's leader Kim
Jong-il at that time but did not get a chance to deliver it.
Citing unidentified sources in Washington, the Hankook Ilbo, a South Korean
daily, reported Wednesday the U.S. may send former President Jimmy Carter or New
Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to North Korea in an effort to win the release of
two American journalists detained there for more than a month.
Pyongyang said last week that the female journalists caught during a news
reporting trip along the border between North Korea and China will be put to
trial, accusing them of illegally trespassing across the border and engaging in
"hostile acts."
"I think it is still early to talk about a U.S. envoy because the U.S. is likely
to wait for the results of the trial," the ministry official said.
In 1996, Richardson, then a congressman, flew to Pyongyang and successfully
negotiated the release of an American citizen, Evan Hunziker, who had been held
for three months on suspicion of spying after swimming across the Yalu River that
runs along the North Korea and China border.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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