U.S. hints at bilateral talks with N. Korea due to idled 6-way talks

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, April 30 (Yonhap) -- The United States Thursday hinted at its
willingness to engage in bilateral nuclear negotiations with North Korea amid
slim chances that the North will return to the six-party roundtable.

"If we have to look at other options, you know, diplomatic options, we certainly
will," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. "There is skepticism about
the North's intentions, and it doesn't appear likely that the North, at least
from the signs we have seen so far, is willing to return to the negotiating
table."
Wood echoed U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's remarks earlier in the day
that U.S. funds for North Korea's denuclearization remain available "in the
event, which at this point seems implausible if not impossible, the North Koreans
return to the six-party talks and begin to disable their nuclear capacity again."
Clinton appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee to defend a budget
request for the dismantlement of the North's nuclear facilities under a six-party
process, which has been in limbo since December over how to verify Pyongyang's
nuclear activities.
The Obama administration has asked for US$176.5 million for the fiscal year
starting in October for North Korea's denuclearization.
The U.S. is obligated to provide 200,000 tons of heavy fuel oil and help pay for
disabling North Korea's nuclear facilities in the second phase of the six-party
deal. The third and final phase calls North Korea to dismantle all of its nuclear
programs and facilities in return for hefty economic and political benefits from
the five other parties to the talks -- South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and
Japan.
North Korea, however, has threatened to boycott the six-party talks, conduct
further nuclear and ballistic missile tests and restart its nuclear facilities
being disabled under a six-party deal in defiance of the U.N. Security Council's
condemnation of its recent rocket launch.
The U.N. has decided to impose embargoes on three North Korean firms involved in
the trade of parts for missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea insists it orbited a communications satellite, although the U.S. and
its allies say it was a disguised ballistic missile test.
The North's recent move has been seen by many as an attempt to derail the
six-party talks and revive bilateral talks with the U.S., discontinued after
President George W. Bush's inauguration in 2001.
The U.S. has relied very much on China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally,
for its influence at the table, yet the talks have been on and off for six years
without a major breakthrough.
"North Koreans fear that the growing Chinese economic influence on North Korea
might eventually translate into Beijing's enhanced political influence in North
Korea," Suh Jae-jean, president of the Korea Institute for National Unification,
told a forum here recently, noting the growing trade and investment that China
has made in the North for the past decade or so.
In early March, North Korea refused to accept Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special
representative for North Korea, when he toured Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo to push
for resumption of the talks.
That could signal North Korea's desire for bilateral negotiations with Washington
at a higher level than Bosworth, a part-timer who serves as the dean of the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Boston's Tufts University.
Wood reiterated Clinton's pessimism about the prospects for the six-party talks.
"It's very implausible. It's unlikely. But right now what we want to do is focus
on how best to get to that eventual goal," he said. "And we continue to try to
see maybe if there are better ways of achieving our overall objective."
"But right now the focus has been on the six-party framework," he said. "But I
can't tell you what the future is going to hold, if the North should not come
back to the table."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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