Rep. Berman calls on N. Korea to return to 6-way talks without conditions

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (Yonhap) -- A senior U.S. Congressman called on North Korea
Thursday to return to the six-party talks on ending its nuclear ambitions without
conditions.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) made the point while meeting with senior Chinese
officials in Beijing, his office said in a statement. As chairman of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, Berman was leading a bipartisan delegation of
Congressmen to the Chinese capital.
"North Korea's continued refusal to live up to its commitments to cease its
nuclear activities and permanently dismantle its nuclear facilities puts the
security of both China and the United States at risk," Berman said. "North Korea
must return to the Six Party Talks without delay and without conditions."
North Korea has said it will permanently boycott the multilateral talks, citing
international sanctions enforced on it after its nuclear and missile tests in
recent months, and called on the U.S. to engage in bilateral dialogue for a
breakthrough.
The U.S. says any face-to-face negotiations should be conducted within the
six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
China hosts the multilateral forum.
Berman, who met with National People's Congress Standing Committee Chairman Wu
Bangguo, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, NPC Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Li
Zhaoxing and Foreign Affairs Minister Yang Jiechi, called for enhanced
cooperation between the U.S. and China in seeking the North's denuclearization.
China, North Korea's closet communist ally and its biggest benefactor, has often
been denounced for not implementing international sanctions on the reclusive and
impoverished North, which is heavily dependent on China for food, energy and
other necessities.
Berman lauded close cooperation between Washington and Beijing in a variety of
issues, but added, "In spite of our common agenda, there remains work to be done
on some serious issues, first and foremost, on stopping the spread of nuclear
weapons in the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula."
"The North Korean nuclear issue has been an area of positive cooperation between
the U.S. and China, and I expect that it will continue to be in the future," he
said. "The United States and China share the same goal of a denuclearized Korean
Peninsula and agree that the multilateral talks are the best way forward to
achieve this goal."
In an apparent move to ease international sanctions, North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il recently invited former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Hyun Jung-eun,
chairwoman of South Korea's Hyundai Group, to Pyongyang for rare meetings with
foreign dignitaries. Pyongyang also released two American journalists and a South
Korean worker who had been detained in North Korea for months.
Kim reportedly proposed to Clinton that Washington and Pyongyang hold bilateral
dialogue.
Two North Korean diplomats at the United Nations in New York flew to Santa Fe
Wednesday to meet with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who served as energy
secretary and ambassador to the U.N. under the Clinton administration, and asked
him to convey Pyongyang's intent to have bilateral talks to the Obama
administration.
The North Korean leader has also allowed cross-border tour projects for South
Koreans to resume after having been suspended for more than a year amid chilled
inter-Korean ties. He has also ordered measures to facilitate the operation of
the joint industrial park in the North's border town of Kaesong that accommodates
more than 100 South Korean firms.
North Korea also said it is sending a delegation to Seoul Friday for the funeral
of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, with whom Kim Jong-il had an
unprecedented inter-Korean summit in 2000 to produce rapprochement measures,
spawning hopes for the first major contact between senior officials of the two
Koreas since the inauguration of the hardline Lee Myung-bak government in early
last year.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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